An Altered Destiny
by esapid
Summary: If Fate had different plans for Izuku Midoriya, would things change? Would the outcome of battles be flipped, and would lives that were meant to thrive fade away? Relationships will tangle, and paths with be intertwined. This is the story of Izumi Midoriya, the greatest hero of all. (Fem! Izuku)
1. Prologue

This isn't the type of story that you would expect.

In a world filled with quirks, it's no question that happy endings are guaranteed. People will fulfill their dreams, they find their one true love, they become a symbol of justice to all. There are kind-hearted people all around, and symbols of peace are here to protect us from the little evil on this planet. Life is carefree. Joyful. _Peaceful_. But, that wouldn't be a very good story, would it?

This story may seem happy, but will it end that way?

Humans are selfish creatures. They will kill, invade, destroy if it was for survival, or for their own good. Feelings are manipulated, friends are torn, lovers are broken. The evil that lurks so deep in the shadows could loom over us at any moment. And they know what will destroy who you are.

Not able to save someone so close to you.

Trying to win an impossible battle.

Knowing that your happiness is the cause of someone else's despair.

Being unable to accomplish your own dream.

Despair lurks. It waits for the correct moment to catch its prey, and it will break us from the inside. Betrayal lurks. Waiting for the moment to stab you in the back. Destiny lurks. It shows you that choices will not change anything, and death is inevitable.

Is that really it?

Would you be willing to ruin your future for another's?

Would you sacrifice your destiny, for the sake of the greater good?

Will good prevail in the end?

The battle may be won, but the war may be lost.

In this story, I will take characters that we know and love so much, and change them. If Destiny or Fate had different plans for little Izuku Midoriya, would the outcome of the anime we enjoy so much be affected? I will divert him from the path he was meant to take, and watch as that one difference could affect the lives of thousands, or even millions. If Izuku Midoriya was turned into a girl, what ripples in fate could that one incident cause?

Ripples that affect the life and death of others, of relationships, of family and friends. Who once was a friend could become an enemy, and the lives of the people that were meant to live will fade away.

The main character in a story is guaranteed a happy ending, but does that mean everyone around them gets one too?

What do you want?

Do you want them to have a happy ending? Is that what you truly desire?

Or, do you wish for them to despair? For them to completely shatter?

People are fragile. On the outside, we are all the same. Human. Regular everyday people, with different interlaced paths that Fate has laid out for us. We choose who we to be, who we want to become friends with, who to love. We choose how we treat others, how we think about humanity, how we _live_. But, to see who we truly are-

We must _break_.

This is the story of Izumi Midoriya, the Greatest Hero.


	2. The Beginning

Izuku Midoriya was screwed.

He realized this by the time he missed the subway to Yuuei and would have to wait 10 minutes for the next one. Standing on the platform, he paused for a minute to take it in.

I missed the subway?! He thought, the fact finally sinking in. This is bad, this is bad! I can't be late for school, not today! He put his hands to his head. Think, think, think! What's the fastest route to school now? Bus? Car? He glanced at the tracks. Should I just wait for the…no, that'll take way too long!

He glanced at the pavement and sighed, starting to run in the direction of the school, gradually picking up speed.

Red shoes clicked neatly on the pavement as the boy ran, sunlight shining on him and lighting up his green hair. It was a beautiful day in Tokyo, where the sakura trees had bloomed with millions of pink petals, and the sun shone high in the sky, warming away the remains of winter.

Shoes skidded on the stone, as Izuku made a sudden turn to the right, and he continued to run forwards, his breath slowly becoming irregular.

Merely a few days ago, all of Class 1-As' students were informed with the fact that there would be a quirk test on the day they came back. Even though the main goal of the test was to pass it, Izuku was more excited to see everyone's improvements with their quirks. He jumped over a puddle and landed on both feet neatly, continuing to run.

During the fight against Stain, he got to test his new skill, One for All: Full Cowling on the hero killer, but it still wasn't enough. Izuku grimaced as he remembered the horrific events that happened merely days ago and the fierce battle that happened between them. He still needed to improve on his speed, his movement, and his overall mastery of his quirk. His fists clenching in determination, he put on an extra boost of speed to the end of the block.

His red sneakers skidded to a stop at the crossroads, and with his hands on his knees, he panted, catching his breath. Lifting his head up among the crowd of people, he began to mutter.

Taking out his hand, he started gesturing lines on it. 'If I take a right there…no, that wouldn't work.' He brushed shoulders with someone. 'Maybe I can go through the alleyway here and then walk there…yeah, that might work…'

He pointed with his fingers. 'Then from here, I would walk here.' he muttered. 'No, would this way be faster?…maybe, or I could go her—'

Screams suddenly ripped through the air in front of him, and Izuku whipped up his head. The people around him were muttering in concern and whispering amongst themselves, while some were already starting to walk away from the area, scared. All of them were looking in front of them, where red and blue lights flashed in a familiar pattern... Izuku tried to look past all the heads of people but still couldn't see anything. His fists clenched in frustration.

'Excuse me, sir!' He called to a tall businessman next to him. 'Do you know what's going on?'

The man glanced at him and sighed. 'To be honest, I don't. But people are talking about the police chasing a villain… or something.' He looked at his phone. 'I just know that it's going to get me late.'

Izuku bit his lip. He was a hero in training, how could become a hero if he couldn't do anything in a situation like this? The boy tried to squish between the crowd, but to no avail.

Suddenly, a shadow crossed over the crowd, and a figure in blue jumped in front of them. The crowd gasped in surprise and then started to cheer excitedly.

'Look!' A voice rang out from the crowd... 'It's Shockwave! The No.74 hero is here to save us!'

The panic that had grasped the crowd was gone in an instant and was replaced by excitement as everyone tried to get closer to the fight, with the police being the only thing holding them back. Motivational shouts filled the air.

'Go Shockwave!'

'I'm your number No.1 fan!'

'Kick his ass!'

It was even harder for Izuku to see the battle now, as the people in front of him cheered for the hero. Flashes of blue were seen in the air as they fought, and the shockwaves that the hero expelled occasionally created shocks of wind that ruffled the crowd, making them cheer louder.

With a hand on his chest, Izuku sighed in relief. If a pro hero's here, then there shouldn't be anything to worry about. he thought. Turning around, he began to walk away. It's a shame that I won't be able to observe him though, but getting to school's more important!

'W...Wa-Wait! What's happening to Shockwave?'

Izuku paused, then slowly looked back.,

'What…What's he doing!?'

As soon that sentence was heard, a terrifying, horrifying, absolutely bloodcurdling sound reached his ears.

Calling it a scream was an understatement.

The world holds many things that can be seen in the naked eye, and scar it forever. Death. Despair. Cruelty at its finest. When seen, they stay in your head. Forever. Whenever you close your eyes, it will haunt you. Yet, they can still be forgotten. The brain is easily fooled. Hallucinations, mirages, illusions, these are just some of the things your brain can see that just aren't real. Using this, you can even convince yourself that something you saw was never real.

Hearing, on the other hand, is different.

No matter what you hear, your ears cannot play any tricks on you. Whatever you hear is no doubt the truth. This is what makes it so terrifying to people because they know that there's no excuse to the sound that they heard, that no matter how horrifying it is, it's the cold and harsh truth.

What…could push a human being so far to make a sound like that?

Izuku threw himself forwards, running as fast as he could towards the direction of the scream, with each second feeling like a minute, and the sounds of horror still echoing in his ear.

_Tick_.

All of the people around him seemed to be frozen, standing as still as statues.

_Tock_.

He was running so slow, it was as if he was wading in honey.

_Tick_.

The crowd that was once so hard to push against was now practically nothing against his hands.

_Tock_.

Izuku's breath caught in his throat.

_Tick_.

This…can't be real, right?

A huge shockwave of air suddenly exploded from the middle of the square, blowing everything away. The crowd of people screamed, some people even getting blown away by the wind. Hair, clothes and more flew in the air. The ground broke, shattered even from the impact of the air, and bits of stone flew from the center of the crosswords.

Izuku's hands flew in front of him, blocking the wind and debris that came his way. His eyes closed. His feet locked themselves on the ground. Wincing at the pieces that grazed his skin, he looked forward, one eye shut.

The square was a complete mess. Neat sidewalks and pavements were damaged by the debris that flew away and was covered with uneven scratches. Papers and cloths that hung from the building were completely destroyed, ripped to bits by the wind.

Sunlight shined cheerfully on the crossroads, in an almost mockingly manner to the incident that just happened. ```

In the center of it all, a muscular man laid lying on the ground, his body twitching and shaking. With a jolt, Izuku realized that this person was Shockwave. His hands felt heavy. What…monster could do this to the No.74 hero in mere seconds?

A figure appeared out of the dust behind the hero, and Izuku stood there, frozen in place, eyes filling with fear. His heartbeat could be heard clearly in his chest, as he stared at the shadow, waiting for the person to move.

Strangely, it didn't.

Izuku tried to calm himself down, taking deep breaths that shook from fear. Wobbling, he took a small step backward and panted. What…what is it doing?

Suddenly, the shadow in the dust jumped sideways, moving so quickly that if Izuku had blinked, he would've missed it. Two bullets stuck neatly in the ground where the person was just standing, sparking.

The whoosh of wind was heard as more bullets flew towards the figure. The wind picked up, following the shadow as it jumped nimbly over the debris, dodging all the bullets with inhuman grace. Glancing behind itself, it saw the shadows of a bullet, trailing him.

With a jump and a twist, the figure took out a jagged blade from his belt.

_Ping_.

The bullet bounced off with a high pitched noise, clattering on the ground.

The person landed neatly on both feet, breathing deeply. Standing up, he ruffled his hair backward and closed his eyes.

Izuku stared at him in horror, realization dawning on his face. He..sensed that bullets were going to shoot for him, so he.., he stayed there in order to sense the direction of Homing? He stumbled backward. Who could be fast enough to dodge—to dodge Homing?

Police lights danced in the distance, blocking off all four ways out of the square. Yet he didn't move from the center, nor did he open his eyes. Pro heroes began arriving at the scene; Snipe, Midnight, heroes from Yuuei.

Holding up his gun, Snipe shot another round of bullets at the man. Opening his eyes, he glanced to the side. The jagged knife was raised, but it faltered. He lowered it, and turned around, facing the other side. As each of the bullets hit his back, they bounced off, then fell to the ground, clattering.

The man's shirt was filled with holes due to the bullets. Thin black fabric ripped, revealing the layer of protection underneath it.

'A bulletproof vest?' cried Midnight.

Izuku's fists clenched. 'This person…' he muttered. After that one moment when Snipe's bullets were following him, he was able to figure out the strength of them, and so he didn't bother blocking them with his knife anymore. Sweat dripped down his face. He even prepared a bulletproof vest to prepare against situations like this.

Walking forwards, the figure looked around at the damage, eyes darting back and forth. Twisting his foot, his gaze suddenly shifted to the right, and Izuku followed it.

Over on the far side of the square, a child laid on the ground, wailing. She couldn't have been older than 6, and she seemed to be lost, with no one looking after or helping her. What is he plotting? How could he possibly escape using—

The word caught in his throat, as he looked with a panic-stricken face at the child.

_Hostage_.

The person darted towards her. Izuku bit his lip hard and ran towards the child at the same time the man did. Green lightning trickled over his skin, signing the activation of his new ability. A pale hand held out, reaching to grab the child. Sliding on the ground, Izuku grabbed the child with both hands just before the man did.

One for All: Full Cowling 5%!

Stopping the sliding with his hand, he gave the child to a nearby police officer.

'Take her somewhere safe!' His fist clenched.

_**'People that aren't heroes aren't allowed to use their quirk in the public.'**_

I've broken that rule again… he thought. Turning his head backward, his face was met with the end of a jagged blade. Reacting quickly, he leaned his head to the right, trying to dodge the blade He wasn't quick enough, however, as the knife dug a small scar on his face. Izuku jumped back, as the man swiped again, and touched his face, wincing.

He turned towards him, and Izuku's eyes widened, as he stared at the man, no, the _boy_.

He was so…young. He couldn't have been a few years older than Izuku himself. His face was abnormally pale, like how a vampire would look like. White hair draped over his body, covering his pale eyes that blended in with the rest of his skin. His attire was almost entirely black, creating a contrast with his pale complexion. It was strange, abnormal even. His pale-eyed gaze locked onto Izuku's, and he cocked his head.

'Funny…out of all the choices you could've chosen, you chose to save the child.' He smiled. 'Interesting.' Whipping the blade out, he ran towards him at a blinding speed.

Izuku jumped, and the knife swiped the air. I can't be too rash about this, he has a strong quirk, thought Izuku. Turning towards him, the boy gripped the blade downwards and thrust it towards him.

I can't dodge! Thought Izuku. Quickly thinking, he threw his backpack in front of him, the knife was intercepted by the bag.

Pale eyes widened.

With a flick of his wrist, the blade went to the boy's left hand, and he stabbed upwards towards Izuku's face.

Leaning backward, Izuku dodged and flipped, landing on both feet. Wiping the blood off with one hand, he activated 5% of One for All, collecting in his fists. Running towards him, he withdrew his fist and pushed it towards him.

I can't focus on his quirk now! With my speed and strength, I can definitely hit him! He blinked in pain. Just one hit…I'll put enough power to end it all!

The boy sidestepped the punch and pivoted with his foot, swiping the knife again at Izuku. Clenching his teeth, Izuku dodged backward, watching as the knife cut through his uniform, blood dripping out. Jumping back, he grunted, one hand pressing on to his side, which was already dyed with crimson. Black spots danced in his eyesight, and he shook them out of the way.

'I was hoping for you to last longer.' The boy twirled the knife.

Glancing to the side, he saw the row of pro heroes watching him, unable to do anything. They can't risk saving me, because their quirks might hurt me in the process! He gritted his teeth in frustration.

Pushing against the ground with his foot, he charged towards the boy again, lightning flickering around him. Silver flashed as the knife whipped in the air, shining in the light. Using his foot, Izuku pushed himself to the right and thrust his fist towards him.

Tilting the knife, the boy intercepted the punch with the hilt of the knife, barely managing to intercept it. Izuku's eyes flashed with green. Filling his other hand with his quirk, he threw it at his face.

White hair lifted from the wind, and time seemed to slow down. Izuku watched, eyes tainted with terror, as the boy moved out of his way with ease. Grabbing onto his arm, he used his incoming force to throw him on the ground, hoisting Izuku's right arm up in the air and putting his other hand on his neck.

'Don't move.'

Izuku looked up at the boy, whose back was now facing the sunlight, leaning over him. His face was completely emotionless, with his mouth only consisting of a straight line. Hair covered his left eye, and his right eye shined…golden?

'Let me go!'

'Do you think, that just by asking a villain to let you go, they'll do so?'

The boy leaned in closer, speaking softly in Izuku's ear, passing goosebumps down his entire body.

'I know I won't be able to get out of this situation. No matter what I do, I will get caught by the heroes today.'

'Then—Then, what are you doing now?!'

Chills slowly ran down his back. Even without looking at him, Izuku knew the boy was smiling.

'Just thanking you for making this day… not boring.'

Suddenly, a shudder ran through Izuku's entire body. His pupils glanced sideways, and he saw that the black gloves on the boy's hand were gone. Is that how he activates his quirk? Con thought Izuku. He couldn't move, or talk, or see, The only thing that he felt…was darkness.

'I do hope you won't die from this,' a voice whispered, 'it would be a… waste of an _interesting_ person.'

Pain suddenly coursed through his veins, as sharp as a knife. It wasn't the type of aching pain that you would feel when your back hurts, or when you bruised your knee. It was the second of concentrated pain that you felt when you cut yourself on a knife, except that it wasn't just one second.

The pain wasn't just external, inside of Izuku, it felt like something was trying to break out of his body, stabbing all his internal organs in the process. There were no cuts, no scars, no blood. He didn't feel dizzy or see black spots. The only effect was the horrible, terrible, almost burning-like pain that went through his body.

One second passed.

Five seconds passed.

And then he screamed.


	3. A Meeting

Was Izuku dead? He didn't know.

The only sensations that he felt were cold and colder. Spreading underneath his skin, and making his ears and fingertips numb. He tried to move his body, but it wouldn't budge. He couldn't see anything, or hear, or smell. It seemed like the only sense that he had left, was his sense of touch.

Air would occasionally brush over his skin, opening his pores, and teasing his cheeks. His eyes were open, but he the only thing he could see in this place was darkness.

He started to panic, thinking that he had died, and it would be like this forever, floating in a dark, cold place when the scenery suddenly changed.

He was looking at a lake, as blue and clear as the sky and bigger than anything he'd ever seen. Inside, glimpses of multicolored fish were seen as they swan around in glee, and a splash came from the corner of Izuku's eye, as one fish jumped up with droplets of water flying everywhere, rainbow scales creating a rainbow of colors under the sunlight. The lake was surrounded by willow trees, whose branches of leaves draped over the lake and seemed to danced in the sunlight. It was the most beautiful scene that Izuku had seen.

Strangely, however, the scene didn't seem real. Even though he could see the lake and the greenery, he couldn't feel the warmth of the sunlight, nor the sounds of the environment. The edges of the scene were fuzzy, and it sometimes glitched, where the entire scene disappeared in a few seconds, replaced by static. It felt like he was watching an old movie from the 60s.

Moving his hand, he tried to touch it, only realizing that he didn't have a body. Black mist occupied where his body had originally been, like the villain Kurogiri. It spiraled and swirled, with no definite shape or volume.

'Beautiful, isn't it? Even if there are more gorgeous moments in life, I seem to always prefer this one.'

Izuku jumped at the sudden voice from behind him, and instantly got into a defensive pose, or at least he tried, with the mist replacing most of his body making it very difficult to even move.

A woman was standing there, tall and slender, but still well-built with visible muscles all over her body. Fair skinned, with the exception of a small mole next to her right lip, and had sharp intelligent eyes. Her dark long hair kept shoulder-length was put up in a half bun. She was wearing a dark, sleeveless bodysuit with a high collar, yellow elbow-length gloves, and white knee-high boots. Around her waist was a belt with an angular golden buckle, a small cape attached around the back which hung down to her knees, and over her shoulders was a longer cape, buttoned to the shoulders of her bodysuit.

'You can relax, I'm not going to hurt you in any way.'

Her voice bold, yet filled with kindness and sympathy wavered Izuku's defenses, and he put his hands down. Still cautious, however, he kept his eyes on her.

'W-W-Who are you? Where am I right now?'

Her sharp gaze softened at the sound of his voice, and a smile came onto her face. Not sadistic, sad, or in any way negative, it was a genuinely kind smile that came from kindness, empathy, and the will to help other people.

'You are in my memories.'

'What?'

She didn't seem to hear him, as she turned her head away and looked at the mirage of nature in front of them. Reaching her arm out, she tried to touch it, but her hand went through the image completely. The part of the picture that she was touching faded in color and movement, vibrations in her hands creating ripples in the fabric-like scene. When she took her hand back out again, the image gained color and movement again, like the action before it never happened.

'Have you ever met someone called Toshinori Yagi?'

This question caught Izuku off guard. Toshinori Yagi… It was definitely a name that he had heard before, but the details in his head were fuzzy, and he couldn't pinpoint where exactly he had heard the name, or who the name belonged too.

Clear frustration was shown on his face, and the woman put her hand on her chin to think.

'No? Then, how about the name "All Might"?'

Izuku looked up, astonished. "Of course I do! The No.1 hero in the world, the symbol of peace! Always rescuing and saving people with a smile on his face! I don't know of a person that doesn't know his name!'. Even though it's been months spending time with All Might as his personal mentor and teacher, Izuku's eyes still lit up when he talked about his idol and his face, before cautious and confused, had a huge smile painted on it.

It took him a few seconds to realize that he had let his guard down too easily. He wiped the smile off his face as best as he could and looked away. His embarrassment was shown clearly on his cheeks, which blared a bright crimson red.

Watching him, the woman smiled again, one more filled with joy, but also had a deeper emotion hidden in it, perhaps sadness, perhaps remorse. 'I'm glad Toshinori managed to use One for All to become the hero he always wanted to be.'

Hearing these words, Izuku froze and looked at the woman in surprise. 'Toshinori is…All Might?!'

'Considering that he has the potential, I believe so. It was the hero name that he wanted for himself when I was his mentor.'

'His mentor?' 'Mentor for what?'

The woman looked at him. 'One for All, of course.'

The clump of black mist that made up Izuku started to move vigorously around, expressing his strong emotions for the situation. Disbelief, excitement, but most of all, confusion.

'W-Wait, but that would mean-I mean, you're his-'

The woman bowed mockingly at the boy, grey eyes twinkling with excitement and playfulness, and stared into the lightning-green eyes of Izuku, with a mischievous smile.

'The seventh user of One for All, mentor of All Might, Nana Shimura at your service."

—

'I know that this is a lot to take in Izuku, more tea?"

"T-Thank you?'

She then poured Izuku another cup of green tea with the simple flick of her wrist.

Turns out that in her memories, Nana had some control over what was seen and could make new things out of the black mist that surrounded them. Making a cup of tea, with chairs and a small table were as easy as pie, but trying to give Izuku a proper body ultimately failed, probably because he wasn't part of her memories.

Izuku held the green tea as best as he could as a pile of mist. Bringing it up to his face, he was surprised that the steam coming from the tea was actually felt on his skin. But when he drank the tea, no taste of the familiar earthly flavors flowed out of the tea. Still, it was nice to have something warm inside of him.

'S-So, Miss Shimura-'

'Just call me Nana, it would be so strange to have someone calling Miss every time they spoke to me.'

'R-Right, so Nana-san is the 7th user of One for All?'

'That's right,' she said while sipping some of her own tea.

'So there are 6 more users before you?' said Izuku, nervously.

'Mhmm."

'Not to be rude or anything, but where are they? Why are you the only one that showed up?'

Nana put down her own tea and smiled at the young boy. 'They wanted me to talk to you, I've had the most experience talking with younger people, and personally, I think that they might be a little nervous talking to a child.' She laughed, a small genuine laugh that could bring a smile to anyone's face.

'Nana-san, why am I here?'

'Well Izuku, we're just about to get to that, aren't we? said the woman playfully.

With a wave of her hand, the scene of nature that surrounded them disappeared and was replaced by nine people in a straight line. Izuku recognized himself at the very end of the line, along with All Might and Nana-san. However, the rest of the line were people that Izuku had never seen before, and he assumed that they were the previous holders of One for All.

'As you can see Izuku,' said Nana, 'One for All is a quirk that develops and gets stronger as it gets passed on to each person.' As she said those words, Izuku saw the first man holding a piece of fire in his hands. He then turned and gave it to the second person in line. When the fire touched his fingertips, it became bigger and hotter and grew in volume. He then repeated the same action to the next person.

'When it gets passed down enough, however, it can become an unstoppable force of power,' she continued, pointing at the picture.

In the line of people, All Might was just giving Izuku the fire. Already burning and writhing in his grasp, but when the fire reached Izuku, it expanded like an explosion, reaching far beyond his hands, and covering his entire body. The real Izuku jumped at the sudden noise and could feel the heat radiating off the simple picture.

Nana, unfazed by the explosion, sipped her tea again. 'That's the power that you are capable of, Izuku.' She waved her hand, and the tables, the tea, and the chairs all disappeared without a trace and stood up. 'However, that's not it.'

'What do you mean?' asked Izuku. The amount of information that he had received in the past few minutes had already made his head hurt, he didn't need anymore.

'Becuase of the amount of energy that you'd receive from One for All, you would've inherited our quirks as well.'

'S-So wait, I'm going to inherit every One for All users' quirk in the future?" said Izuku, astounded. His head was really starting to hurt now.

"Would've, however, something went wrong." corrected Nana.

"What do you mean by that?' asked Izuku.

'Do you remember what got you here in this place in the first place, Izuku?' said Nana.

Izuku thought back to the moment before he got into Nana's memories. It was blurry and split apart, but he could vaguely recall the images of the incident.

'I…I was fighting a villain, and he used his quirk on me. It—It hurt so much, and I…I can't remember anything that happened after that. ' His forehead knitted together. 'I think that he used his quirk on somebody else before, and it…it forcefully started his quirk?'

Even though what he said made little sense to him, Nana was nodding her head as he spoke. With her hand on her chin, she looked like she was thinking hard about something. Her eyebrows knitted together for a minute and closed her eyes, before opening them again.

'I think I have an idea of what quirk that was was.' She finally said. 'Now in your time, it might be an extinct quirk, but back in my time, there was a very rare quirk that would only manifest in about 10 to 20 people, in the entire world. We called the quirk "Rampage".'

'Rampage?'

'It's the quirk that sounds most like what you described to me.'

She looked back into Izuku's eyes. 'Rampage was a quirk that could activate someone else's quirk, and make it go completely out of control. It was insanely powerful. Making their quirks go out of control could potentially maim or even kill themselves. There have even been some cases where the victims lost their quirk permanently.'

Izuku stared at her in shock. Losing his quirk permanently?

'However, since the quirk was so rare and only developed in a few people, it was classified as an extinct quirk. The person that you talked about may be the holder of this very rare quirk.'

'So when that person uses his quirk on somebody, it can forcefully activating their quirk and make it lose control?'

Nana nodded. 'That's the problem that we face now, Izuku. One for All may be immune to Rampage, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the six quirks are immune to it. Particularly my quirk.'

'Nana-san's quirk?'

Nana held out her hands, and a blue light emitted from them. Through gentle, no temperature radiated from them, it still somehow felt warming.

'My quirk is…gender manipulation.'

'..What?'

She laughed. 'I know, not a particularly heroic quirk, but that's not the point here.' She looked at him. 'Since my quirk would've been the first one you'd inherit, it would've been the one most affected by Rampage.' She closed her hands together, and the light extinguished.

'Which means…?'

Nana opened her mouth, but was interrupted by a huge shudder that ran through the vacuum-like room.

'What was that?'

She smiled.

'I would love to answer more of your questions, but your real self is waking up, Izuku.' She was right. The black mist that had surrounded them was fading, and small beams of light were coming from above. Izuku could even vaguely hear people calling his name.

'B-But Nana-san! I have so many questions! What will your quirk do? A-Am I still going to inherit all of your quirks?'

Nana looked into his eyes. 'This won't be the last time we see each other Izuku, I promise.' Her smile then turned mischievous, 'Though, I'm surprised that you stayed in this place for so long, being in a coma for a week is quite long.'

'A week!? I've been out for that long! But it only felt like a hour or so?'

'Time passes differently in the mind, Izuku.'

The light was really getting brighter now, enough to make him see black spots. Izuku sprinted at Nana's silhouette, barely seeing her now. She put her hands to her mouth and was about to say something, perhaps goodbye, or a message of luck for the future, but the sound that came out wasn't Nana's voice, but a voice that he felt like he hadn't heard in weeks.

'Wake up, Midoriya my boy!' said Nana in All Might's voice,

Izuku woke up with a start and head-butted All Might straight on the head.


	4. A Sudden Change

**Hey everyone! I'm Esapid, the writer and I'm really happy that many of you are enjoying the fanfic. This is my first time writing one and therefore there may be some mistakes. If you do realize any, please let me know by reviewing. Thanks for the support! (･∀･)**

Even in an incredibly fragile and weak state, Izuku packed a good headbutt.

Surprised by such a sudden move, All Might, in his deflated state, got hit with it head-on, and fell to the ground, spewing blood and with a decently sized bump on his head.

Izuku awoke feeling like he hit a wall with his head, frustrated and confused. If he'd stayed in the One for All world for just a tad longer, he would've learned so much more about his quirk, and the effects that Nana-san's quirk would do to him. He sighed and looked around. It seemed like he was in a hospital of some kind, and lying on a bed. It was a sunny afternoon, and a breeze flew in, smelling of flowers and fresh air, ruffling Izuku's long hair… Wait, _long_ hair?

His hair that was always cut pretty short now was flowing down to his waist. Instead of the original ruffles that he'd always had, his new hair had straight long locks. They were a mix of different shades and the palette of colors in the sunlight shimmered in different types of green. He touched it, and it felt silky and smooth, with the faint fragrance of jasmine flowers. It was strange, thought Izuku. Perhaps this was a new change that Nana-san told him about.

He looked down, and did his chest grow a bit bigger? Moving around, he felt that he couldn't his..um..thing between his legs… Maybe this was also a change that Nana-san mentioned.

Looking around, he saw a table filled with gifts and care packages. He saw some familiar messages on them, from people in his class, like Iida and Uraraka, and even one from Todoroki. Most of them, however, were from people that didn't know.

He thought it would be best to call someone over to inform them that he was awake. He was about to call for someone when he looked on the ground, and saw All Might in all his glory, lying in a pool of blood.

Visitors and patients of that hospital would wonder that day about why there were multiple screams and sounds of punching coming from the 3rd floor.

—

'I still can't believe, the first thing that you do to your teacher after he's been visiting you every day for a week, is to headbutt him!' scolded All Might.

'I-I'm really sorry All Might! I told you, I just woke up and I didn't even know that I hit you! Plus, you punched me as well!' protested Izuku, holding an ice pack to his cheek, where All Might had punched him after he regained consciousness. Thankfully, All Might in his deflated state wasn't very strong, and so he didn't do much damage.

'Still, you should show more res—ahh!' His sentence was interrupted by a nurse chopping him with her hand on the back of his neck.

'Toshinori, I appreciate that you feel so energetic after all that, ' said the nurse with a forced smile on her face, 'but I've had a horrible day in customer service so far, so if you keep on moving, I swear to whatever god there is out there that I will personally **kill you right here and now**.'

'…sorry, Doya-senpai..'

She sighed and continued to heal him with the glowing bursts of green light that came from her fingertips.

_Yiyashi Doya_

_Age: 36_

_Quirk: Energy Heal_

_She can revert her own energy into stockpiles of nutrients that can heal wounds. However, if she overuses her quirk, she could faint or even fall into a coma!_

She looked at Izuku with a tired smile. 'You must be Izuku, right? It's a pleasure to finally meet you,' she looked sideways at All Might, 'Toshinori has told me a lot about you.'

'I-It's very nice to meet you too! ' Izuku muttered nervously. Izuku always behaved quite shy when he met people for the first time, not only that, but Doya-san was known for her beautiful face and big brown eyes, her dress wrapped tightly around her curvy figure. He tried and failed to hide the blaring blush that made it's way to his cheeks.

She laughed and pinched Izuku's cheeks with her hands. 'So cute! Why would someone like you stay with someone like him?' she stared at All Might with disdain.

All Might looked like he was about to say something, but was shut up by the death glare shot from Doya.

Izuku squirmed nervously. 'Y-You guys seem like good friends…'

Doya's glare was wiped off and replaced with a smile when she turned towards Izuku. 'Do we now? Well, we're a bit more than friends.'

'O-Oh? So are you guys dating?'

The room was so quiet that you could probably hear a pin drop on the ground. Izuku looked down, wondering if he'd say something wrong.

All Might sensed this strange atmosphere and asked with caution, 'Doya-senpai, are you alright?'

Doya very slowly turned her head towards him. With a completely relaxed face, she said sweetly. 'Toshinori, what. have, you. been. telling. her?'

Her? Thought Izuku, why are they addressing me with female pronouns?

All Might started to sweat rapidly. 'N-Nothing, I didn't say anything to her about u-us! I don't know why she thought we were dating!'

'Really now, Toshinori. I find that very suspicious.'

Izuku stood up and tried to ease the situation. 'D-Did I say something wrong Doya-san? I'm really sorry!'

Doya looked back at Izuku with the same sweet smile, that scared Izuku more than her usual death glare.

'Izuku darling? Could you phone downstairs and inform them that there's a patient in room 342 that has a bruised cheek and that we need some bandages?'

'B-But,' stuttered Izuku, 'we have no one here that has a—'

As quick as lightning, Doya punched All Might in the face. The fact that it was a clean punch, added on with the surprise factor, sent All Might straight to the ground, the wounds that she just healed opening up again, blood spewing everywhere. All Might, the greatest hero of all time, fainted instantly. It was scary, but not as scary as her face, which stayed a sweet smile through the entire process.

She looked at him again, and with the exact same smiling face, asked him. 'What did you say again?'

Izuku decided to not say anything.

—

'S-So when All Might went to school in Yuuei, Doya-san was the one healing him when he got hurt by One for All?' asked Izuku.

'Yep, at that time, Toshinori had just gotten One for All, without somebody to heal him, he would've probably done permanent damage on his arms. In that time, none of the teachers were informed with the quirk, so he had to come to find me to heal himself.' replied Doya.

After All Might's little 'accident, the conversation changed from three to two people. Even though she was friendly towards him, Izuku still felt a bit uncomfortable sitting next to the person that just one-shotted his mentor. For the past few minutes, he told her all about the One for All world and the quirk 'Rampage.'

'However,' added Doya, 'even as he grew up, he began to rely too much on my quirk and would get himself hurt more and more with One for All.' She sighed. 'Even when he's grown up, he still comes to me whenever he's hurt. I think it's because he trusts me, and seeing that he's brought you here instead of any other hospital, he cares a lot about you.'

Izuku's heart throbbed, and he looked away from Doya, hands fidgeting with his long hair.

Doya smiled, even if this was the person that single-handedly handled a pro villain, he was still quite childish at heart and his emotions were written in his actions clearly.

'Anyways,' she started, 'I think that it's time to address the elephant in the room.'

'I've heard from Toshinori about how oblivious you are, so you probably haven't noticed this yet, but have you noticed any changes on your body after you woke up?'

'Well,' squirmed Izuku in his seat, 'my hair suddenly grew super long, and the um…my thing is gone…'

Doya ignored the awkward atmosphere and nodded as she jotted something down on a piece of paper.

'Ok, is that all? Nothing else happening?'

'N-Not that I know of…'

Doya sighed and looked at him. 'Izuku, do you know what's happened to you?'

'I would assume that when I got hit by the person's quirk, there were some effects that happened on me and my body? That's why all these changes happened to me?'

'Only half right, I'm afraid.' Doya reached into her handbag and picked up a mirror. She gave it to Izuku, 'Look at your reflection, Izuku.' What Izuku saw in the mirror took his breath away.

It wasn't the normal, awkward Izuku that he remembered himself as. His face now was small, cute, and a healthy gleam to it. He had a sleek jawline that cut through his neck and his cheeks, chubby and cute, were sprinkled with freckles, like the night sky. His hair wasn't messy, which was how it used to always be when he woke up. Sleek and smooth, it ran down his head like a river, flowing and weaving on his clothes and skin. His eyes were bigger and sparkled innocently in the afternoon light, it was a beautiful shade of green, the type of green that you would see on the shadows of leaves.

The first emotion that Izuku felt while looking at the picture was confusion. Who was this girl that he was looking at through the mirror? It took him a while to realize what had actually happened.

'I-Is this me?' muttered Izuku. He touched his face a few times and even pinched himself on the cheek to make sure that he wasn't still dreaming. 'I'm a girl?!'

'It took you long enough to realize.' muttered Doya.

'B-But how? Is this even possible? Are these changes even permanent? Am I going to stay a girl forever?' He was starting to hyperventilate when he was grabbed b the shoulders by Doya. He stared into her eyes.

'Calm down Izuku! I know that this is a big change for you, but you need to breathe! said Doya with a firm voice. Shaking, Izuku took some deep breaths through his mouth.

'I-I'm sorry about reacting so extremely to the situation, Doya-san.'

Doya sighed and sat back down, 'Honestly, you reacted completely normally to this. This isn't the first time that it's happened, there have been gender-change quirks gone berserk before, but the user had always converted the person back. Gender-change quirks can't be used on the user, and all affected people by the quirk turn back when the user dies. But since Rampage made your quirk go crazy, you somehow activated on yourself and turned yourself into a girl.'

'H-How is that even possible?'

'We don't know what exactly happened because Rampage is such an unpredictable quirk, and the science behind it is complicated. Plus, the author isn't smart enough to write about what exactly happened.'

'What?'

'The point is', continued Doya, 'the effects of your quirk probably couldn't be fixed right now.'

'O-Oh really? Ok then…'

Izuku was quite worried. Because he's conquered broken arms and legs before, but he'd never known what it was like being a girl. Did his, or her personal monologue have to be with female pronouns now?

His train of thought was interrupted by Doya lightly patting him on his head.

'Don't look so down! I'm sure that the doctors will find a cure in no time, plus', she added, 'being a girl can have it's perks as well, especially with that cute face of yours.' she said with a smile.

She was right. Izuku had been quite small and cute, but now being a girl, the effects were amplified quite a bit. Izuku didn't have a huge bosom or butt, nor did she put makeup on her face. Her own natural beauty, added with her lean figure all contributed to the adorable vibe that Izuku gave off.'

Izuku looked away in embarrassment, 'T-Thank you Doya-san.'

'It's nothing, are you feeling better now?'

'A-A bit.'

'Good, there's someone that wants to see you right now, Izuku.'

The door opened to reveal a man walking in. Tall and bulky, and wearing a police badge, he stood there with a clipboard and pen. His stern gaze was directed towards him, and Izuku recognized him as the head officer of the police department that interviewed him during the Tomura Mall incident.

'Izuku Midoriya, not even a week after the Stain incident, and you manage to get yourself in an even bigger mess.' he sighed, and sat down on one of the chairs, legs crossed.

'I-I'm really sorry officer,' said Izuku, head down in both embarrassment and shame.

'You shouldn't be ashamed,' said the officer firmly, and Izuku put his head up in surprise. 'You waited for an opening to come, and you took it and protected not only yourself but the dignity of Yuuei and preventing the hero killer Stain from escaping. However,' he continued, 'this incident counted as improper use of a quirk. So, I'm afraid that I'll have to give you one week of suspension from Yuuei and during that week, you aren't allowed to use your quirk at all.'

Izuku gulped and asked, 'Is that all? I thought that I would be taking on a much bigger sentence.'

The policeman smiled. 'Fortunately, we managed to minimize your punishment because of your help to the police in catching a criminal with an unregistered quirk. But,' he said before Izuku could say anything,' he ended himself before we could capture him, so I'm afraid that we cannot question him about reversing your…effects.'

Izuku slumped in disappointment. 'I understand officer, thank you.'

'Even though this is the law, and I'll have to obey it, but,' he turned toward Izuku and bowed. 'Thank you, for protecting the civilians and doing what was right.'

'N-No problem!' Izuku said while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

The officer got up and was about to leave when he turned his head back. 'One more thing, Izuku seems like quite a strange name for a girl, so for the time being, would you like to change your name?'

Izuku closed his eyes and thought about it for a minute. Changing his name… He would like to change his name to make it more appropriate for a girl, but to what? Searching his head for possible names, he finally chose one that he liked. Opening his eyes, he said:

'I'll change it to Izumi, Izumi Midoriya.'

**Fun Fact:**

**Doya's full name, Yiyashi Doya was a name that I came up with by combining the words 'Healing' and 'Bold'.**

**The reason that I chose the name Izumi was not only because it was similar to Izuku's name, but also because the name meant 'valiant' and 'positivity', which I think reflects Izuku's nature.**


	5. Relax

Watching Inko Midoriya cry was one of the most heart aching things that Doya had ever seen.

Her face, already tired and scrunched from overworking and anxiety, now had tears lacing down the cheeks, like a river that couldn't be stopped. She would occasionally wipe her eyes, but it wouldn't help the abundant amount of water that came out of her eyes. She was the one scolding Izuku, no Izumi about how much worry she had put her in, but was leaning on Izumi for support as her worry and concern for the young girl poured out. Doya's heart nearly shattered from the amount of pain in her voice, from seeing again, her daughter in a near-death experience.

She put her hand on the single mother's shoulder, and Inko turned, sobbing in her shoulder. Doya hugged her tightly and patted her back to reassure her.

Izumi stared worriedly at her mother. He, no she knew that a simple injury could get her mother in a complete crying fit. But a week in a coma? She didn't what to know what effects that had on her. Normally, she would've reassured her as well, but she had nothing to say to her, she was disappointed in herself as well. Disappointed that she didn't get away in time from the villain. She scrunched her fists, and then let all her emotions go.

'I'm so sorry Mom, I should've been more careful while fighting the villain, p-please don't cry anymore!' sniffled Izumi. Then she as well started to sob and cry and bit. Doya pulled both of them into a hug and snuggled both of them against her, where they both started to cry even harder. Staring at the police officer, she gestured with her head to get her some tissues.

—

'So,' said Inko, still sniffling, 'Izuku's going to be a girl now?'

'I'm afraid so, Mrs. Midoriya.' said Doya. 'The effects that the quirk had on her are, I'm afraid possibly permanent. We are trying our hardest to find the reason behind it.'

Inko grabbed Izumi's shoulder, 'Is that it? Do you have any other injuries? Do you feel okay? Are you—.'

'Mom, I'm fine,' said Izuku as he gently removed Inko's hands from his shoulders, and held them tightly. 'Other than becoming a girl, I have no other injuries. Whenever I fight in a battle, I try to not get hurt because I know that you'll be worried. So please Mom, stop worrying about me, it hurts to look at you so worried about me.'

Inko wiped her tears and smiled while turning away and looking sternly at everyone else. 'Even though he, I mean she didn't sustain any injuries, I still don't like the idea to send her to Yuuei right after the incident.

The police officer coughed. 'This is one of the reasons why we arranged the 7-day suspension from Yuuei and her quirk. One would be punishment, but another would be for her to recover from the shock of the incident and to also get used to the life of a girl.' The police looked at them. 'Mrs. Midoriya, we've already contacted your company about a one week break, which they approved.' He smiled. 'Please use this time to relax with your daughter.'

Izuku gripped his mother's hands even tighter. 'Do you hear that Mom? We can spend the entire week together!'

Inko smiled again, she stood up and bowed to the people in the room, surprising everyone. 'Thank you,' she said, 'for keeping Izumi safe and healing her while I was gone.' While everyone was stunned, Doya bowed back.

'It was our duty to heal her, we should be thanking your daughter for capturing a pro-villain and doing what pro heroes and police combined couldn't do.' said Doya respectfully. Following her example, everyone else in the room returned the bow to Inko.

—

In a way, Izumi really valued the week's vacation.

Even though she wasn't allowed to refine and work on her quirk, she forgot how much good sleep and rest felt on her body.

Yawning, she got out of bed. Wind. Sounds of the morning flowed through the air. She rubbed her eyes and looked around, her eyes adjusting to the light. It was always so strange to wake back up in her room, especially since she woke up in One for All's world. The posters of her idol hung on the wall, and she walked over to smooth one of them out.

Smiling, she looked over to her right where her new Yuuei uniform hung. They had sent the uniform a few days ago once they heard the news about her, and thankfully, they were quite understanding of her changes.

She stretched. And took a deep breath. Here goes nothing, she thought. Face already blaring, she took her shirt off as quickly as she could and put her T-shirt on as quickly as she could. Even after a week of becoming a girl, she still felt very uncomfortable about looking at her.. um, new body. She put her hands to her hot face and took a few breaths, cooling her skin down.

Opening her eyes again, she brushed her hair away from her face. She had lots of work to do today. She didn't how her quirk would work on her body now, as the body structure of women and men were quite different. It was frustrating that she couldn't use her quirk, she thought while walking out the door, but at least she could exercise and refine her muscles.

'Morning Izumi!' said Inko with a smile. Izumi smiled back. Her mother was looking much better after the week of rest and relaxing. The eyeballs were gone, the wrinkles of stress were gone, her mother really did look much better.

'Hello Mom,' she yawned again and sat down, starting to pick at her food.

Inko sat down from across her daughter and looked at her worriedly, 'Is the food okay? Did you have a good night's sleep? Are you feel—'

'Mom,' Izumi cut her off, 'I feel fine. I know that you're worried about me, but,' she smiled gently, 'I'm absolutely fine.'

Inko sighed, 'I know, but I'm still quite worried about you.' She reached forwards and ruffled her daughter's hair, and Izumi squirmed under the gesture.

She smiled. 'I have an idea, Izumi while I'm going to the supermarket today, why don't you come with me to the department store right next to it to buy some clothes?'

Izumi let a spoonful of eggs fall back onto the plate. 'C-Clothes, like, do you mean girls' clothes?' She could feel her face going hot and she looked away. 'I-I mean if you want to, we could, we could but—'

'It'll be fun! You've been stuck inside the house for such a long time, you need to go out.'

'Y-Yeah, but—'

'Izumi, if you don't want to, I would completely understand.' said Inko gently.

'Um..well…'

Inko smiled at her daughter. 'if we do go out today, I could possibly make tonkatsu for you tonight.'

'Mom! That's not fair!'

'Make your choice quickly Izumi, I'm going to go soon.'

It was hard to argue against such a tempting offer. iIzumi sighed, then looked at her and smiled. 'Lemme go grab my hoodie first.'

—

You see, many different types of people can be seen on the street. Quiet, loud, messy, stylish. There are also people that stand out, no matter what they do. You could put them in the most boring mundane settings, and they would stand out. You could make them wear a potato sack, and they would shine.

Izumi Midoriya was one of those people.

Her attire was nonetheless simple. A simple grey hoodie that was too big for her and sagged at her wrists, boring black shorts around her thighs. No makeup on her face, no accessories on her skin. Yet, she still stole the spotlight. Her face, small and cute sparkled under the morning light. Her eyes shone with an optimistic yet innocent light, shining with an abnormal elegant green light that reflected off her irises. The soft smell of jasmine shampoo flowed through the air.

Everywhere she went, eyes turned, all thinking the same thing.

She was damn hot.

Izumi, oblivious to all the eyes on her, had some other questions in mind.

Who knew girls had so much to wear? thought Izumi.

She was walking with her mother in the department store for what seemed like hours now, she always knew that her mother loved to shop, but she didn't know that it would take that long for her to find new clothes. It seemed like they would go into every shop that they passed and buy something.

'Aren't we done now?" complained Izumi, her back aching. Even as someone who had gone through intense hero training, hours of walking around was still pretty tiring.

Inko smiled. 'Are you tired already Izuku?' she said. 'It's only been a few hours, are you tired already?'

'Yes! Why do we have to go into every shop that we pass?'

'Don't you think that it's fun?'

'Not really…'

Inko grabbed her daughter's hand and pulled her to another shop. 'The last one of the day', she promised. Inko tugged her daughter's hoodie into a shop filled with all different types of dresses.

'Mom? You promised me to not buy any dresses?'

Inko smiled at her. 'But you would look so cute in one! Just one please?'

Izumi sighed. 'Fine.'

While Inko was looking at all the dresses, she walked over to the shirts section. She found the difference between girls' and boys' clothing quite drastic. Even though most of the girls' clothes looked fashionable and pretty, a lot of them were quite uncomfortable to wear. Her hand scarped over all the hangers as she walked.

Inko reappeared out of all of the clothing, 'Do you want to try this on?' she asked. She held out a baby blue dress, draped in layers of fabric and lace, intricate designs folded in the fabric. The long sleeves were flowing with grace and spread out in the air.

'This? You want me to try this on?'

'You'll look perfect in it, I promise.'

She sighed, and took the dress, disappearing in the changing rooms.

One of the women working there took the chance to talk to Inko. 'Miss?' she started 'Could we invite your daughter to model for our shop?' she asked, passing her a name card.

Inko panicked a bit. 'Izumi? W-well I don't think—'

'Mom?'

Inko took the chance to escape from the conversation, 'Izumi? Are you finished changing?'

'Yep.'

The women behind her, a bit frustrated at being cut off, looked above Inko and was lost for words.

The girl before already had a natural charm. Her innocence and joyful aura were already perfect for the job. It was already hard to find somebody like that, and she thought that that couldn't get more perfect. She was dead wrong.

When wearing the dress, Izumi's charm multiplied. Her hair, which before was hidden under her hood, was exposed to the air, showing all it's beautiful curves and strands. Her thin arms and legs fit perfectly with the dress, showing all its beauty and elegance. Her eyes created a sharp contrast with the dress, green on blue, and the sky of freckles was now shown on her face.

Inko squealed like a little kid. 'You look so pretty Izumi! Your face shape, body built are all perfect for this style!'

The girl walked forwards, hands behind her back, biting her lip in nervousness and embarrassment. It was absolutely adorable.

'So, do you want to buy it?'

'If it makes you happy Mom, sure.'

Inko grabbed her daughter's hand. 'Izumi, this is still your choice. What I'm doing is giving you the suggestion of what would look nice on you, but if you still want to dress like a boy, you don't have to buy all these.

'It's fine Mom, I'm already happy when I'm with you. Plus, I do look pretty nice in these.' she smiled a warm radiant smile that warmed the autumn air even more. That was the last straw for the woman, and she had to hold herself back from squealing.

—

Katsuki Bakugo was not in a great mood.

He gritted his teeth and swung his gym bag onto the pavement and resisted the urge to explode something with his quirk.

Deku, stupid Deku had somehow, just a few days after the Stain incident, managed to get himself in **another** problem.

'Fuck,' he muttered under his breath. After the Hero Training he had with the stupid hero, Best Jeanist where he learned nothing, he saw how muted everyone grew compared to him. Considering Deku had the mental will stronger than anyone else, he probably grew as well. Hands changing into fists, he walked out of his compound to the gym.

A wisp of air passed him, jasmine, with the fresh scent of the cold crisp air. He turned and saw somebody run back into the compound. In a hurry, with key card wrapped tightly around her fist, she ran back into the compound he just came out of. Even though her back was turned, her green hair and aura seemed familiar somehow, he felt like he had seen this girl somewhere. Raising his hand, he opened his mouth and hesitated.

Then, in the blink of an eye, she was gone. Bakugo lowered his hand and turned back.

'Probably was no one,' he muttered and walked out.


	6. Reactions to a Beginning

The room was silent.

Nobody said a word, everyone, already shocked by Izumi's appearance before couldn't understand what had happened. Instead of eyes widening and jaws dropping, nobody moved a finger due to the amount of shock they were in, all were glued to their seats. Except for one person.

'Shinso! You made it to the hero course! said Izumi cheerfully, as she stood up from her seat.

The purple-haired boy sighed and walked into the classroom slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. The gazes of the remaining 19 people followed him closely as he made his way the side of the classroom, where Izumi was standing. Izumi herself was still smiling at the student. Staring down at her, he asked:

'Do we know each other?'

Huh? He doesn't recognize me? thought Izumi, cocking her head to the right.

'Don't reply to him!' shouted Ojiro, startling her, and she looked back at his face, which was painted with caution. Ojiro gritted his teeth and glared at him. 'He'll hypnotize you again, don't you remember from the sports festival?'

Shinso snorted, and he walked his way slowly to Ojiro, whose glare started to fade. He gulped nervously and looked up at the boy that was walking straight towards him. Shinso looked down. 'You're the person I worked with during the competition, right?'

'Worked with? You cheated! You manipulated me to do what you wanted!'

Shinso put his hand on the table and leaned forward, making Ojiro go backward in his seat, the awkward position restricting him from using his tail. The purple-haired boy's calm expression, inches away from his own face was filled with something else…a sort of silent anger. The rest of the class watched, horrified at the sudden actions that the boy had taken.

'I did what I had to do, to win.' he said, his gaze turning into a glare. 'I used my quirk to the best of my abilities, to ensure that I would win.' He leaned in even further, locking Ojiro against the desk. 'Why is it that when you use your quirk, it's a use of "skill" and a symbol of "heroism", but when I use mine, it's "cheating" and "manipulation"?' Ojiro didn't reply and looked to the side.

'Hey, bastard.' Shinso looked to his right, where Bakugo Katsuki, the only student that had recovered from the shock stood, hand starting to glow an intimating orange. 'I never liked you since the sports festival.' He smirked. 'Who do you think you are?'

With another snort, Shinso got up and stared at the hot-tempered boy. 'I saw you at the Sports Festival, Bakugou Katsuki.' He smirked. 'I can't believe you actually got into Yuuei, you're even more horrible in person.'

Bakugo's hair stood on point. With his hand outstretched, he pointed it at Shinso. 'WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU—'

A shock rippled through his body and Bakugo lost control of his body, falling on the ground, all of his four limbs losing the feeling of movement. His hand lost the vivid color and fell to the ground.

Shinso sighed and leaned over at him, staring into his blank eyes. 'Are you stupid?'

'Shinso.' The boy looked over at the front of the room. Aizawa stood there, still in his sleeping bag, staring at Shinso. 'Stop scaring my students.' The silent anger that roared so strongly in his eyes was instantly extinguished, and he stood up.

'Sorry Sensei,' he said. With a nod of his head, Bakugo regained consciousness over his body. Breathing heavily, he tried to sit up, but couldn't balance himself. Shinso shot one final glare at Ojiro and stood up to walk to the back of the room. Before he did, however, he looked over at Izumi, who was nervously looking at the ground. He stopped in his tracks.

''You haven't answered my question yet,' he said, staring at her. He leaned down until his face was next to her's. 'Who are you?'

'Well…uh, I am, I'm um.' stuttered Izumi.

Shinso looked all over the girl, including her hair and eye color, her face shape, and other features on her face. His eyes narrowed, as he tried to think of where he had actually seen her. She was definitely familiar. A blast of freezing cold air, however, stopped his train of thought and created a small wall between them. He retreated backward. Glancing to the side, he saw Todoroki's hand outstretched, frost covering the entirety of it. His eyes were colder than the air he just let out.

'Didn't you learn your lesson Izuku?' the boy yelled.' He tricked you once at the sports festival, are you going to let him trick you again?'

'No, no Shinso-kun wouldn't do that! exclaimed Izumi. 'I trust h—'

'Heh.' smirked Shinso, turning towards the red and white haired boy. 'Who knew that the mighty Todoroki actually cared about the people in his class?' He walked towards Todoroki, making the boy flinch a bit. Izumi looked on, worried, hands wrapped tightly together. 'You know, Todoroki,' he said to him, 'I really hate people like you, the people that think they're above everyone else because of their own quirk,' he walked up to him. 'It disgusts me.'

Todoroki's eyes widened in anger, and was prepared to use his quirk again on this boy when—

'Both of you, enough!' shouted Aizawa, as his eyes turned red from the activation of his quirk. 'Shinso, go your desk and stay there for the rest of the period.'

'Of course, sensei.' Shinso sighed and looked around the room, where everyone was in small groups, all whispering and throwing gazes over at him. His eyes landed on Izumi, who was trying very hard to blend in with the wall beside her. Green met purple, and he mouthed to the girl: 'We need to talk.'

—

The entire class was glaring at them.

Izumi could feel the gazes from everyone and shivers ran down her back. Sitting at the desk at the very back, she and Shinso were very obviously standing out. Everyone was sitting at the front, seemingly trying to get as far away from Shinso as they could. Occasionally a kind reluctant gaze met with her eyes, but most of the glares emitted from Class 1-A were suspicious.

'So', she started, nervously tapping her fingers on her legs, 'what do you want to talk about?' She stared across the desk into Shinso's eyes. He sighed, and silently rubbed the back of his neck, his gaze directing away from her.

'I just wanted to know if you were doing okay, Izuku.'

'Well…um, I, I.. wait, how do you know who I am?' said Izumi in surprise. 'No one else in the class recognized me!'

Shinso gave a small laugh. 'Really? Then they must be stupid! It's honestly quite obvious!'

'Don't call my classmates stupid!'

'Fine, but seriously, how did they not notice?''

'I mean, it's a big change!'

Shinso sighed. 'Lets both calm down, Izumi. I didn't tell you to come here to just shout at each other.'

'Sorry…'

'However, I really can't blame you. If someone called my classmates stupid, I would've responded like that as well.' He put his face in his hands. 'The first day at school and I've already offended pretty much all of the students in the class. I really can't let my emotions get a hold of me anymore. Ugh…'

'It's um, fine! I mean, I mean that um, you really did cross the line on this one. But you were really good at your act though.'

Shinso glared at her. 'None of it was an act, I just showed the mutual feelings that we had for each other.' We all loathe each other He stared at the group of people at the front, and they all squinted in unison at the boy. Closing his eyes, he ruffled his hair and looked up at Izumi, with a sad smile. 'I think you're the only one that's okay with me right now.'

'Shinso, I think,' she paused, 'I'm not saying that your actions were wrong, but I think that you need to understand that not everyone hates you. Some people in the class had good opinions on you, though you kinda ruined them this morning…' She glanced down, nervous.

Shinso didn't reply, and she continued.

'You need to understand Shinso, that you can't judge everyone by one person's actions. Even if their actions are wrong towards you, you can't—'

'Izuku.' The purple haired boy interrupted her.

'Yeah?' said the girl nervously.

Shinso ruffled his hair, frustrated. It was silent for a minute. 'Could I talk to you later?' He looked away. 'I need to think about something.'

'Sure! No, no problem!'

Izumi got up and smiled awkwardly, starting to walk away. She faced away, giving a sigh of relief from the nervousness. However, she grimaced. She had obviously pushed Shinso too far in a direction where he didn't want to go. Looking back at the boy, he was staring out the window, with an unreadable expression on his face.

'Why did you reply to him!' shouted a voice.

Izumi turned her head swiftly to the front, where a certain brown-haired girl was standing.

'That was dangerous! Who knows what he could've done to you!'

Izumi's pale face started to turn pink, and she felt her entire body starting to grow warm.

'Uraraka!'

'LIsten to me Deku! Didn't you see what happened to Bakugou and Ojiro? They both ended up like that because they messed with Shinso. So why do you do the same thing as them?' She gestured to the two boys, who ignored her in return.

'Listen, um listen to me, Uraraka!' She directed her gaze away from her in embarrassment. 'Y-You're um being too loud! Shinso-kun will hear—'

'Look directly in my eyes when I'm talking to you, Deku-kun!' Uraraka grabbed her face and swung it around. The determined brown eyes of Uraraka stared into her own, and the pink

tint on her face turned a vivid red.

'Uraraka-san um, lo-oook, I'm, I'm really sorry!' Izumi waved her hands in the air in an exaggerated motion and looked away.

Slowly, Uraraka realized that her very hands were touching Deku's face. Her face, as well turned bright pink, and she instantly went backward, waving her hands as well.

'IIt's fine! I should be the one that's sorry! I wasn't used to your,' she tried to think of a word, 'your new look.'

Izumi patted her face and took a few deep breaths. It was really nice to talk to Uraraka after such a long time, but she couldn't show how embarrassed she was.

''She's right, you know.' Iida walked over. 'We were all really worried about you when you went to talk to Shinso.' He leaned in and said quietly. 'Not to mention that he completely destroyed Bakugou-kun.'

'What did you say?' Bakugou's angry voice rang out, and he stood up. 'I could destroy that fucker in a second!"

'You've got a point, Iida,' added Kirishima, 'Bakugou's face while he was on the ground, so much disbelief on his face! I-It was, it was…pfft!'

Kirishima burst into a fit of laughter, followed closely by Sero and Kirishima. Everyone in the class started to snicker as well.

'What are you talking about?! Go die!' shouted Bakugou, emitting sparks from his hands. At this point, everyone was starting to openly laugh, even Todoroki managed to crack a small smile.

Eventually, Izumi started to giggle at everyone laughing, and Bakugou looked over at her.

'STUPID DEKU, DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!'

Izumi stopped giggling and looked at everyone. 'I wasn't laughing at you, Kacchan,' she started. Then, she smiled, and the amount of positivity that came from that single smile seemed to light up the entire room, and everyone, even Shinso, looked at her. 'I was just really happy that everyone's happy! When I came into class this morning, everyone looked so down. I'm just glad that everyone's acting positively again!'

The innocence and brightness portrayed from that one sentence were blinding, and all of Class-1A felt like they were in heaven.

Mina suddenly came and hugged Izumi from the back, 'You're so cute, Deku!'

'MMMina-san?! C-Could you please um, let go of —'

Izumi suddenly felt her body go lightweight, and she was in the air, still wrapped in Mina's arms. 'And you're so light as well!'

'Your hair is very well conditioned Izumi, where did you get your conditioner?' Yaoyouzu suddenly came and started to run her fingers through her hair.

'Um, Y-Yaoyouzu?'

'Could it be an effect from the quirk?' Asked Asui, joining the conversation as well.

'Um. um well…'

'Hey, Midoriya! Could you tell us more about the incident!' asked Hagakure.

'Um, sure?'

'Yay! I have so much to ask you!'

—

Unknown to the girls, the boys were all watching them from the other side of the room.

'Midoriya is fitting in really well with the girls, isn't he? said Sero.

'She.' corrected Mineta, starting to drool. 'After Midoriya turned into a girl, she really became hot!"

Kirishima made a face of disgust. 'Mineta, you really need to learn how to respect people.'

'Yeah, but—'

'Hey grape midget,' said Bakugou, 'shut up about that loser.'

Mineta looked away, frightened, and Bakugou gave a snort of disgust.

—

Todoroki looked over at the girls, then back to his desk, where he sat listening to Iida and Uraraka's conversation. He glanced at Shinso, and their eyes met. Instantly, the purple-haired boy pushed his gaze away. His fist clenched.

—

Shinso ruffled his hair again and groaned. Sitting in the chair the entire class didn't help with the emotions he was feeling from the conversation with Izumi. The only person in the class that accepts me, andThe bell swiftly rang, and he got up to collect his books from the table. Glares of the rest of his classmates were felt on him.

They still have negative emotions about me, thought Shinso. He bit his lip. I should've known. He took his backpack and swung it over his back. And to think I wanted to talk to Izumi about…—

Red and white flashed at the corner of his eye, and he glanced sideways to see Todoroki, walking towards him, both eyes determined.

He walked away.


	7. Impressions

The room was silent.

Nobody said a word, everyone, already shocked by Izumi's appearance before couldn't understand what had happened. Instead of eyes widening and jaws dropping, nobody moved a finger due to the amount of shock they were in, all were glued to their seats. Except for one person.

'Shinso! You made it to the hero course! said Izumi cheerfully, as she stood up from her seat.

The purple-haired boy sighed and walked into the classroom slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. The gazes of the remaining 19 people followed him closely as he made his way the side of the classroom, where Izumi was standing. Izumi herself was still smiling at the student. Staring down at her, he asked:

'Do we know each other?'

Huh? He doesn't recognize me? thought Izumi, cocking her head to the right.

'Don't reply to him!' shouted Ojiro, startling her, and she looked back at his face, which was painted with caution. Ojiro gritted his teeth and glared at him. 'He'll hypnotize you again, don't you remember from the sports festival?'

Shinso snorted, and he walked his way slowly to Ojiro, whose glare started to fade. He gulped nervously and looked up at the boy that was walking straight towards him. Shinso looked down. 'You're the person I worked with during the competition, right?'

'Worked with? You cheated! You manipulated me to do what you wanted!'

Shinso put his hand on the table and leaned forward, making Ojiro go backward in his seat, the awkward position restricting him from using his tail. The purple-haired boy's calm expression, inches away from his own face was filled with something else…a sort of silent anger. The rest of the class watched, horrified at the sudden actions that the boy had taken.

'I did what I had to do, to win.' he said, his gaze turning into a glare. 'I used my quirk to the best of my abilities, to ensure that I would win.' He leaned in even further, locking Ojiro against the desk. 'Why is it that when you use your quirk, it's a use of "skill" and a symbol of "heroism", but when I use mine, it's "cheating" and "manipulation"?' Ojiro didn't reply and looked to the side.

'Hey, bastard.' Shinso looked to his right, where Bakugo Katsuki, the only student that had recovered from the shock stood, hand starting to glow an intimating orange. 'I never liked you since the sports festival.' He smirked. 'Who do you think you are?'

With another snort, Shinso got up and stared at the hot-tempered boy. 'I saw you at the Sports Festival, Bakugou Katsuki.' He smirked. 'I can't believe you actually got into Yuuei, you're even more horrible in person.'

Bakugo's hair stood on point. With his hand outstretched, he pointed it at Shinso. 'WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU—'

A shock rippled through his body and Bakugo lost control of his body, falling on the ground, all of his four limbs losing the feeling of movement. His hand lost the vivid color and fell to the ground.

Shinso sighed and leaned over at him, staring into his blank eyes. 'Are you stupid?'

'Shinso.' The boy looked over at the front of the room. Aizawa stood there, still in his sleeping bag, staring at Shinso. 'Stop scaring my students.' The silent anger that roared so strongly in his eyes was instantly extinguished, and he stood up.

'Sorry Sensei,' he said. With a nod of his head, Bakugo regained consciousness over his body. Breathing heavily, he tried to sit up, but couldn't balance himself. Shinso shot one final glare at Ojiro and stood up to walk to the back of the room. Before he did, however, he looked over at Izumi, who was nervously looking at the ground. He stopped in his tracks.

''You haven't answered my question yet,' he said, staring at her. He leaned down until his face was next to her's. 'Who are you?'

'Well…uh, I am, I'm um.' stuttered Izumi.

Shinso looked all over the girl, including her hair and eye color, her face shape, and other features on her face. His eyes narrowed, as he tried to think of where he had actually seen her. She was definitely familiar. A blast of freezing cold air, however, stopped his train of thought and created a small wall between them. He retreated backward. Glancing to the side, he saw Todoroki's hand outstretched, frost covering the entirety of it. His eyes were colder than the air he just let out.

'Didn't you learn your lesson Izuku?' the boy yelled.' He tricked you once at the sports festival, are you going to let him trick you again?'

'No, no Shinso-kun wouldn't do that! exclaimed Izumi. 'I trust h—'

'Heh.' smirked Shinso, turning towards the red and white haired boy. 'Who knew that the mighty Todoroki actually cared about the people in his class?' He walked towards Todoroki, making the boy flinch a bit. Izumi looked on, worried, hands wrapped tightly together. 'You know, Todoroki,' he said to him, 'I really hate people like you, the people that think they're above everyone else because of their own quirk,' he walked up to him. 'It disgusts me.'

Todoroki's eyes widened in anger, and was prepared to use his quirk again on this boy when—

'Both of you, enough!' shouted Aizawa, as his eyes turned red from the activation of his quirk. 'Shinso, go your desk and stay there for the rest of the period.'

'Of course, sensei.' Shinso sighed and looked around the room, where everyone was in small groups, all whispering and throwing gazes over at him. His eyes landed on Izumi, who was trying very hard to blend in with the wall beside her. Green met purple, and he mouthed to the girl: 'We need to talk.'

—

The entire class was glaring at them.

Izumi could feel the gazes from everyone and shivers ran down her back. Sitting at the desk at the very back, she and Shinso were very obviously standing out. Everyone was sitting at the front, seemingly trying to get as far away from Shinso as they could. Occasionally a kind reluctant gaze met with her eyes, but most of the glares emitted from Class 1-A were suspicious.

'So', she started, nervously tapping her fingers on her legs, 'what do you want to talk about?' She stared across the desk into Shinso's eyes. He sighed, and silently rubbed the back of his neck, his gaze directing away from her.

'I just wanted to know if you were doing okay, Izuku.'

'Well…um, I, I.. wait, how do you know who I am?' said Izumi in surprise. 'No one else in the class recognized me!'

Shinso gave a small laugh. 'Really? Then they must be stupid! It's honestly quite obvious!'

'Don't call my classmates stupid!'

'Fine, but seriously, how did they not notice?''

'I mean, it's a big change!'

Shinso sighed. 'Lets both calm down, Izumi. I didn't tell you to come here to just shout at each other.'

'Sorry…'

'However, I really can't blame you. If someone called my classmates stupid, I would've responded like that as well.' He put his face in his hands. 'The first day at school and I've already offended pretty much all of the students in the class. I really can't let my emotions get a hold of me anymore. Ugh…'

'It's um, fine! I mean, I mean that um, you really did cross the line on this one. But you were really good at your act though.'

Shinso glared at her. 'None of it was an act, I just showed the mutual feelings that we had for each other.' We all loathe each other He stared at the group of people at the front, and they all squinted in unison at the boy. Closing his eyes, he ruffled his hair and looked up at Izumi, with a sad smile. 'I think you're the only one that's okay with me right now.'

'Shinso, I think,' she paused, 'I'm not saying that your actions were wrong, but I think that you need to understand that not everyone hates you. Some people in the class had good opinions on you, though you kinda ruined them this morning…' She glanced down, nervous.

Shinso didn't reply, and she continued.

'You need to understand Shinso, that you can't judge everyone by one person's actions. Even if their actions are wrong towards you, you can't—'

'Izuku.' The purple haired boy interrupted her.

'Yeah?' said the girl nervously.

Shinso ruffled his hair, frustrated. It was silent for a minute. 'Could I talk to you later?' He looked away. 'I need to think about something.'

'Sure! No, no problem!'

Izumi got up and smiled awkwardly, starting to walk away. She faced away, giving a sigh of relief from the nervousness. However, she grimaced. She had obviously pushed Shinso too far in a direction where he didn't want to go. Looking back at the boy, he was staring out the window, with an unreadable expression on his face.

'Why did you reply to him!' shouted a voice.

Izumi turned her head swiftly to the front, where a certain brown-haired girl was standing.

'That was dangerous! Who knows what he could've done to you!'

Izumi's pale face started to turn pink, and she felt her entire body starting to grow warm.

'Uraraka!'

'LIsten to me Deku! Didn't you see what happened to Bakugou and Ojiro? They both ended up like that because they messed with Shinso. So why do you do the same thing as them?' She gestured to the two boys, who ignored her in return.

'Listen, um listen to me, Uraraka!' She directed her gaze away from her in embarrassment. 'Y-You're um being too loud! Shinso-kun will hear—'

'Look directly in my eyes when I'm talking to you, Deku-kun!' Uraraka grabbed her face and swung it around. The determined brown eyes of Uraraka stared into her own, and the pink

tint on her face turned a vivid red.

'Uraraka-san um, lo-oook, I'm, I'm really sorry!' Izumi waved her hands in the air in an exaggerated motion and looked away.

Slowly, Uraraka realized that her very hands were touching Deku's face. Her face, as well turned bright pink, and she instantly went backward, waving her hands as well.

'IIt's fine! I should be the one that's sorry! I wasn't used to your,' she tried to think of a word, 'your new look.'

Izumi patted her face and took a few deep breaths. It was really nice to talk to Uraraka after such a long time, but she couldn't show how embarrassed she was.

''She's right, you know.' Iida walked over. 'We were all really worried about you when you went to talk to Shinso.' He leaned in and said quietly. 'Not to mention that he completely destroyed Bakugou-kun.'

'What did you say?' Bakugou's angry voice rang out, and he stood up. 'I could destroy that fucker in a second!"

'You've got a point, Iida,' added Kirishima, 'Bakugou's face while he was on the ground, so much disbelief on his face! I-It was, it was…pfft!'

Kirishima burst into a fit of laughter, followed closely by Sero and Kirishima. Everyone in the class started to snicker as well.

'What are you talking about?! Go die!' shouted Bakugou, emitting sparks from his hands. At this point, everyone was starting to openly laugh, even Todoroki managed to crack a small smile.

Eventually, Izumi started to giggle at everyone laughing, and Bakugou looked over at her.

'STUPID DEKU, DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!'

Izumi stopped giggling and looked at everyone. 'I wasn't laughing at you, Kacchan,' she started. Then, she smiled, and the amount of positivity that came from that single smile seemed to light up the entire room, and everyone, even Shinso, looked at her. 'I was just really happy that everyone's happy! When I came into class this morning, everyone looked so down. I'm just glad that everyone's acting positively again!'

The innocence and brightness portrayed from that one sentence were blinding, and all of Class-1A felt like they were in heaven.

Mina suddenly came and hugged Izumi from the back, 'You're so cute, Deku!'

'MMMina-san?! C-Could you please um, let go of —'

Izumi suddenly felt her body go lightweight, and she was in the air, still wrapped in Mina's arms. 'And you're so light as well!'

'Your hair is very well conditioned Izumi, where did you get your conditioner?' Yaoyouzu suddenly came and started to run her fingers through her hair.

'Um, Y-Yaoyouzu?'

'Could it be an effect from the quirk?' Asked Asui, joining the conversation as well.

'Um. um well…'

'Hey, Midoriya! Could you tell us more about the incident!' asked Hagakure.

'Um, sure?'

'Yay! I have so much to ask you!'

—

Unknown to the girls, the boys were all watching them from the other side of the room.

'Midoriya is fitting in really well with the girls, isn't he? said Sero.

'She.' corrected Mineta, starting to drool. 'After Midoriya turned into a girl, she really became hot!"

Kirishima made a face of disgust. 'Mineta, you really need to learn how to respect people.'

'Yeah, but—'

'Hey grape midget,' said Bakugou, 'shut up about that loser.'

Mineta looked away, frightened, and Bakugou gave a snort of disgust.

—

Todoroki looked over at the girls, then back to his desk, where he sat listening to Iida and Uraraka's conversation. He glanced at Shinso, and their eyes met. Instantly, the purple-haired boy pushed his gaze away. His fist clenched.

—

Shinso ruffled his hair again and groaned. Sitting in the chair the entire class didn't help with the emotions he was feeling from the conversation with Izumi. The only person in the class that accepts me, andThe bell swiftly rang, and he got up to collect his books from the table. Glares of the rest of his classmates were felt on him.

They still have negative emotions about me, thought Shinso. He bit his lip. I should've known. He took his backpack and swung it over his back. And to think I wanted to talk to Izumi about…—

Red and white flashed at the corner of his eye, and he glanced sideways to see Todoroki, walking towards him, both eyes determined.

He walked away.


	8. Accepting the Truth

'You changed your name to Izumi?' asked Uraraka.

It had been a long morning, and all of them were sitting at their usual table eating the delicious made by Lunch Rush. Izumi looked up from her bowl of tonkatsu.

'Yeah, both the doctors and the police suggested it. Since the effects of the quirk probably won't wear off, they said that it would be more natural for me to have a suitable girl name.'

Uraraka kept looking at Izumi's face, and she started to tense up.

'What's um wrong? Is it a bad or weird name?' asked Izumi nervously, looking down at her food.

Uraraka broke out in a bright smile. 'Of course, I don't! It's a really nice and cute name, and I think that it suits you a lot! Since you're a girl, could I call you Deku-chan instead?'

Izumi looked away quickly to make sure that Uraraka didn't see her face, which was painted with a soft pink. 'TT-Thank you, Uraraka-san! Of—Of course, you can!'

Iida looked confused. 'If you confirmed that a week ago, then why didn't you just tell us this morning?'

Izumi looked at them. 'Oh, I was going to, but I couldn't find a chance to tell you guys.' She took another bite of rice with her spoon. Uraraka and Iida couldn't resist looking at her as she did, even though she was technically still Izuku, no, Izumi, it was so strange seeing her like this, like a girl, doing normal things like eating.

'So that's why you were acting so strangely this entire day.' said Todoroki as he silently slurped up his soba.

'Strange?'

'Yeah,' he swallowed calmly, 'You were acting really flustered all day, and your face was always pink, like right now.'

'Huh?' Izumi put both her hands onto her cheeks, and felt how warm they were. She started to get even more flustered, which in return made her face even warmer and redder. Embarrassed, she looked down to hide her face.

'Wow Todoroki, it looks like you paying lots of attention to Izumi the entire day!' She wiggled her eyebrows. 'Any particular reason?'

Todoroki swallowed his food. 'Well, after the sports festival, I wanted to repay Izumi in some way. But I couldn't find a chance to. So I thought that I could help her in the period of time she came back from her coma.' He paused to wipe his mouth. 'That's why I was paying so much attention, just in case she needed my help.'

Izumi looked over at Todoroki and smiled. 'Thanks Todoroki-kun, but I think…' Her hands clenched. 'I want to overcome this all by myself!. She stretched her arms and looked up in the sky. 'If I can't overcome a small hurdle in my way, then I definitely can't become the greatest hero!.' A smile appeared on her face.

Both Uraraka and Iida smiled brightly at the amount of innocence and positivity that was suddenly brought into the room. Even Todoroki cracked a small smile.

'Good luck with that, because I'm going to be the best hero!' said Uraraka energetically, arms pumped with motivation.

'Personally, I think that I can beat you Uraraka-san.' exclaimed Iida. 'You have too many flaws with your fighting techniques that make them predictable!'

Uraraka's face went red. 'Well, you have flaws too Iida! You let your emotions get in the way of your logic!'

'Unlike you, I've only made that mistake one time!'

'Yeah, but it's still a mistake!'

Izumi laughed at the two of them and went back to her food. Out of the corner of her eye however, she caught sight of a certain purple-haired figure, back turned and alone.

'Guys?' she asked to her table and gestured to Shinso. 'Do you think that we should, um, invite Shinso to eat with us? He seems a bit lonely.'

The laughing atmosphere went silent and was quickly replaced by uncertainty. Izumi looked at the rest of the people sitting at the table, who all tried to not make eye contact. Uraraka was fiddling with her hair, and one of her hands gripped her leggings. Iida suddenly found his sports shoes to be very interesting. Her head started to droop.

'Ah, you guys, um, don't enjoy his… presence, right?' Her hands fidgeted with her hair. 'I-I understand, um—'

'I don't mind him.' Everyone whipped their heads at Todoroki, who was slurping his noodles.

'You d-don't? Um, but Todoroki-kun, didn't he um, you know, say all those insulting things about you?'

The red and white haired boy looked at all of them. 'I never said that I liked him, and he does say some pretty insulting things. ' He sighed. 'I'll have to admit that a lot of the things he said about me were true, I did overly rely on my quirk, and belittled others as well.'

'So why are you giving him a chance?' asked Uraraka.

Todoroki slumped in his seat. 'I made a horrible first impression on everyone here as well. I didn't treat you like friends, nor did I care about you. But you still gave me a chance, so why shouldn't we give another chance to Shinso?'

Silence responded to his question, and through the calm mask remained on his face, his eyes gave off a sort of…sympathy. 'I guess the reason that I'm standing up for him is that I relate to him. I remember what it was like to think that I…well, didn't need anyone. It was quite lonely.' He made eye contact with everyone on the table, a sort of silent determination replacing the sympathy in his eyes. 'I don't want anyone to go through what I went through.

The silence was so prominent at this point, that it was almost deafening.

'He's right.' Iida's voice broke the silence. His hands fixed the position of his glasses. 'We…We had prejudice towards him, and didn't see for ourselves for who he really was.' He made eye contact with Izumi. 'Todoroki's correct, we should give him a chance.'

Izumi looked at Uraraka pleadingly, and in return, the brown-haired girl pouted. 'Fine, but don't blame me if I don't like him. Anyone that does anything bad to my friends probably isn't a good person.'

Izumi's face brightened up. 'Great!' she cheered. 'I'll just go and get him no—'

'You don't have to.'

Izumi practically jumped in the air after hearing those words right by her ears. She did a sudden turn of her head, along with Uraraka and Iida. Todoroki however, was unfazed. 'Speak of the devil,' he muttered.

Hitoshi Shinso was standing right beside her.

'Hey, why'd you suddenly appear like that!' accused Uraraka. 'Were you listening to our conversation the entire time?'

The boy scoffed. 'I finished with my meal and happened to past by here. You guys talk really loud, you know?' He patted the couch that Todoroki was sitting on. 'Move over, pretty boy.' Todoroki looked at him and hesitated, before moving to the right, and Shinso took his seat.

The table had a very awkward atmosphere, and everyone started to pick at their food.

'So,' started Shinso,' are you guys going to talk about _anything_?"

Izumi tried to break the tension. 'Shinso-kun, how did you manage to transfer to the hero department?'

'They scouted me out during the sports festival since I showed good use of my quirk.'

'Are you going to be able to keep up though?' asked Uraraka suspiciously. 'After all, we all had training through our hero internships.'

'Who said that I didn't go through an internship as well?'

'Really?' asked Izumi in surprise. 'Who did you intern under? Midnight? Nighteye? Hawks?' Her eyes glimmered with excitement.

Shinso rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. 'Eraser Head.' he replied promptly.

'Aizawa-sensei was your internship teacher? So cool!' exclaimed Izumi. The other people on the table were looking quite impressed as well.

'Sensei told us that he had high expectations, so being chosen as a student… you must've really impressed him.' said Uraraka.

Shinso kept looking away and didn't make eye contact with anyone on the table. 'T-Thanks,' he managed to get out.

'What was it like at the internship? Did Aizawa-sensei tell you how he used the capturing medal? I want to know all about it!' Izumi kept leaning forwards, and Shinso slowly recoiled, while looking at the others. Uraraka shrugged and mouthed, 'She's just like that.'

Shinso looked back at the girl, who was eagerly waiting for his reply. He cleared his throat. 'Well,' he started, 'it really wasn't anything special. He just helped me improve my basic fighting techniques and taught me how to fight without using my quirk.'

'Without using your quirk?'

Shinso rubbed the back of his neck. 'Unlike most people. my quirk is basically useless if people know about it. So sometimes, I would need other methods to capture villains instead of just my quirk.'

'But why did you accept the invite? Isn't it lots of hard work?'

Shinso looked at them. 'Because I want to become a hero, obviously.'

Everyone at the table, but Izumi had a sudden realization. Whether they liked Shinso or not, he was one of them, he still wanted to be a hero, and he was doing his best to accomplish his goal.

'That's, that's um—a lot of work you put in there.' replied Iida.

Izumi nodded at him. 'Is that why you chose Aizawa-sensei? Because he has to use weapons instead of his quirk as well? That's so exciting!'

'I g-guess?' Shinso leaned back a bit more in his seat.

Izumi probably would've asked more questions, but Shinso was saved from the fate of them by a certain high-pitched voice.

'Hello, students!' cried the familiar voice of their rodent principal, from the loudspeakers. Catching everyone by surprise, everyone looked up at the speakers.

'This is an announcement for all the first-year students! The partner choices have been pinned to the front of the cafeteria door, so please take note of it~ The final exams will be in a week, so use your time wisely!'

Izumi's eyes widened in surprise. 'Didn't our class do the final exams while I was away?'

'Nope.' responded Uraraka. 'They postponed it because of Deku and Shinso's absence.' She nibbled the end of her chopsticks.

'And we're going to be in partners?' Izumi's eyes shined. 'That's so exciting! There'll be so many different methods where you can combine your quirks depending on who you get, and the week before the exam can be used in so many different ways! You can strengthen your own quirk, or focus on working together in a group!'

Todoroki sighed. 'It's all going to come down to who your partner is. I don't work well in a team, so I'm hoping it's a support, like Asui.'

'True' nodded Uraraka, 'I would want somebody who's better at offensive.'

Iida stood up with his plate. 'Since the list is already up, should we go and take a look?'

Izumi stood up as well and picked up her plate. 'Good call.' She smiled. 'Let's go!'

—

It was a sea of people at the entrance. Hordes of people piled up at the front, many of them not even first years. In a crowd like that, it was incredibly hard to even see where you were going.

Managing to squish to the middle, the five of them continued to make their way to the exit.

'Why is there so many people—ow!' said Uraraka, as somebody's elbow grazed past her eye.

Izumi felt the same. Since the quirk somehow made her a girl, her body got smaller, and it much easier for everyone to squish her and much harder for her to make her way through the crowd.

'Ow!" she cried out, as someone bumped into her. She fell to the ground and rubbed her arm, where a light pink was starting to form on it.

'Izumi? Where did you go?' the sharp voice of Todoroki appeared in the crowd.

Closing one eye from the mild pain, she said, 'I'm fine! I just—ow, um I fell down!'

She tried to stand up again, but the sheer amount of people were overwhelming her and she didn't have enough room to get up. She was seriously considering using her quirk to get out the mess.

However, sounds of surprise and shrieks came from the people around her. She looked up and saw two huge hands parting the people around her, and giving her space. An orange haired girl walked towards her, her hands parting the people around her.

'Can't you see that she needed help to get up?' the girl asked the people surrounding her. Some of them looked concerned, while others scoffed.

Typical hero department.' he muttered, and the group of people started to disperse. The girl sighed, and her hands returned to normal. She held one of those up to Izumi/

'Oh, thank you! I can get up myself, don't worry. ' Izumi got up quickly and brushed the dust down her skirt. 'Tha—Thank you.'

Once she stood up, she recognized her as the class president of Class 1-B, Itsuka Tenko. With a bright smile on her face, she replied, 'Oh it' fine, I just happened to see you.' Noticing her uniform, she asked: 'Are you the new student that they were talking about? It's nice to meet you!'

'It's um—It's nice to meet you too. But you see, I'm not th—'

A scoff interrupted her. 'What a pity, you get to be in the worst class.' Monoma sneered, from behind Kendo. 'How sad.'

Kendo sighed and turned to the blond haired boy behind her. 'Monoma, we talked about this. Could you stop harassing the students in Class 1-A?'

'Why would I not tell her the truth? The truth that Class 1-A is just—'

'Hey., blond kid. Could you step away from my classmate?'

Izumi turned behind her to see Shinso looming over her shoulder, staring daggers at the Class 1-B students. Behind him were the rest of the group, Uraraka, Iida, and Todoroki.

Izumi looked up at Shinso. 'I could've dealt with this all by myself!'

'No, you obviously couldn't.' He sighed. 'After you gave that long speech to Todoroki about how you 'didn't need help', and that you could 'overcome it yourself', you can't get yourself out a situation like this?'

Izumi's face went red, and she fiddled with her long hair.

'Well, well, well, if it isn't Class 1-A,' said Monoma, with a look of disgust. 'Always coming to ruin everything.' Pointing at the purple-haired boy, he asked,' Who are you?'

'Isn't he…' started Kendo.

'He's Hitoshi Shinso, the person who fought me during the sports festival!' interrupted Izumi.

Both of them stared.

Shinso sighed, preparing for the sheer magnitude of disbelief that was going to spill out.

'Wait—That would mean—You're Izuku Midoriya? That boy?' said Kenko, in surprise.

'Well I go by the name Izumi now, but yeah. This happened after I went after a villain and got hit by his quirk.' said Izumi sheepishly, hands behind her back.

'So that would mean—Hitoshi, you're the new student in the hero course?'

'Yes.' said Shinso in a bored voice.

A small giggle was heard behind Kenko. They turned to find Monama, hand covering his face, shaking. Within a second, he started to laugh maniacally, staring at the group of Class 1-A students.

'Isn't this hilarious? Students of Class 1-A, who apparently are soooooo much better than Class 1-B, get hit by a simple gender change quirk!' He smirked. 'I can't believe someone from Class 1-A would get affected by such a weak quirk!'

Shinso looked at him, eyes glimmering with a hint of danger. 'Weak quirk?'

'That's right.' Monoma waltzed over to Shinso. 'I can't believe that Class 1-A accepted somebody like you in their class, a villain.'

'That's enough Monoma!' shouted Kendo, but he was just getting started.

Laughing, he walked even closer to the Class 1-A students. 'Look at all these heroes! Uraraka, Iida, and Shouto Todoroki.' He smirked. 'The so-called strongest student among the first years can't even protect his own classmate.'

Todoroki started to fume. 'You…'

'Are you really going to use your quirk here? That wouldn't be a very good example to everyone here, am I right?' He gestured around him, where a small crowd of people had already started to gather. Todoroki's hands fisted into balls, while a dangerous glint of light started to gather in Shinso's eyes.

'Stop this Monoma!' shouted Izumi. 'Why do you always pick on Class 1-A?'

Monoma turned around and sneered at the shouter student. 'Your class always thinks they're so high and mighty because of the sports festival, because of the USJ incident. I'm just putting you all back into your places!'

The shadows covering Shinso's face made it hard for anyone to see his eyes. 'And…those are the only reasons?'

'Of course! What other reasons would I need—'

Monoma's movements, before so smug and casual, now froze in place. His eyes turned blank, and his entire body stood, locked in one place.

'Are you stupid?' asked Shinso. His gaze turned cold. 'Looks like, you need to learn a lesson about treating people with respect.'

'Stop Shinso!' cried out Izumi. 'I know that you're probably mad but—'

'Of course, I'm mad! This person has treated your class with absolute disrespect and you still want him to go without any consequence?'

'I—I know that he's done some horrible things, but we need to learn to forgive him as well!'

Shinso scoffed and turned back to the boy. 'I'm not as forgiving as you Izumi, this person will get what they deserved.'

'Shinso-kun! Please!''

'Shinso, stop.' The cool voice of Todoroki rang out. Even though his voice was calm, his hands were still firmed in fists. 'I know that you want to do this, I want to do this. But you're a part of the hero department now, we have a reputation to uphold.' He gestured to the crowd of people around them. 'The hero department already has a ruined reputation, we can't ruin it even more.' Shinso didn't say anything.

'Shinso, please.' said Izumi pleadingly. She didn't want to see her friend get in trouble.

A light 'Tch!' was heard from the boy, and Monoma suddenly relaxed, breaking into a cold sweat. He looked up at the boy but was met with a cold glare. 'There won't be a second time,' he whispered to Monoma.

Shaking, Monoma got up, and ran away, swiftly followed by Kendo, who mouthed 'sorry' to the rest of the students. Shinso rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. 'Just forget about what happened, okay?'

Uraraka nodded her head with uncertainty. 'Yeah…' She paused, and then seemingly decided to say something. 'T-Thank you,' she muttered. Izumi heard the silent comment and smiled to herself.

The front of the cafeteria wasn't as crowded anymore, so the five of them could easily make their way to it. Scanning the list, Izumi looked for her name. Finally finding it, she read her partner's name once. Then paused.

'I'm with Aoyama? That's pretty neat!'

'Yaoyouzu could really help me balance out my quirk.'

The shock had finally settled in Izumi, as she shouted.

'I'm with Kacchan?!'

'I'm with _Deku_?!'

These two comments were said at the same time, and as Izumi looked to her left, she saw the glaring red eyes of Bakugo Katsuki.


	9. The First Battle

'What are _you_ doing here?"

Izumi stepped backward quickly. 'K-Kacchan! I didn't—I didn't see you there!'

'Cut the shit, Deku! Why do I have to be with someone like you?' His unwillingness was clearly printed on his face, and he glared at Izumi. 'I don't want to be with someone as weak as you for the exam! You'll only drag me down!'

Shinso narrowed his eyes. 'Why are you so bias towards Izumi?'

'I don't remember starting up a conversation with _you_, bastard.'

Shinso glare nearly pieced through Bakugo, and he rolled up his sleeves. Bakugo made a disgusted expression, and his hand started to turn the familiar orange color, emitting sparks.

'Both of you, enough.' Iida stepped in between them. 'We can't make the hero department look bad in front of other students!' Izumi looked around and found that multiple students were whispering and pointing at their way.

'Guess what, I don't give a shit!'

'Well, you probably should.' Aizawa walked down the hall, and in front of them. Everyone looked relieved at the sudden appearance of their teacher. He sighed. 'I only came here for a coffee, but I'm glad that I dropped by.' He glared at Bakugo, activating his quirk. 'Bakugo, stop threatening your classmates. The exam choices have been made for a reason.'

'But that doesn't mean that I have to be with _her_!' He pointed at Izumi, who looked desperately like she was trying to disappear into the floor. 'I want to switch partners! Anyone else in Class 1-A, but Izuku!'

'It's Izumi now, actually.' interrupted Uraraka.

'This isn't any of your business, Ochaco!'

'But it's certainly mine.' said Aizawa-sensei. 'Bakugo, these partners have been chosen for a reason, you'll to learn how to work with them properly for your grade. There will be no changes made to them.'

Izumi looked down at her shoes, and Bakugo turned away with a 'Tch', walking away. She sighed.

'Even though the teachers gave us a week to plan, I don't think our group is going to get anything done…' she said sheepishly to the group.

'That's not the only reason we gave you the one week preparation time.' cut in Aizawa, causing everyone to stare at him. 'The time can be used flexibly, you can choose to impose your quirk, or work together in your teams. So use your time wisely.' he said, walking away.

'Thanks sensei.' she said shyly.

Shinso watched her expression closely. 'Why do put up with that horrible person? I would've blown up already and give him a long talk about his attitude towards others.'

'Well… I've known Kacchan since childhood—'

'That isn't an excuse, you _know_ that.'

Izumi didn't say anything.

Uraraka stretched her arms in the air. 'Anyways, we have a free period after this. What are you guys going to do?'

'It should be either training or meeting up with your partner.' added Iida.

'Well,' started Izumi,'It doesn't seem like I don't have much of a choice, do I?' She sighed. 'I'll go try and convince Kacchan to have a strategy meeting later, but I'd like to go the training grounds for now.' She looked at the group. 'Does anyone want to come with me?'

'I can't.' said Uraraka. 'I've gotta go talk to Aoyama about strategy.' Izumi looked quite disappointed at this fact.

'I'll be doing that as well.' said Iida.

Shinso rubbed the back of his neck. 'I won't be in the exams since there's an odd number of people in Class 1-A now. So I'll help you with your training.'

'I'll go too.' said Todoroki. Shinso looked over at the boy, smirking. 'Are you going because you don't trust me alone with her, pretty boy?'

Todoroki looked away. 'Partly,' he started, and the shadows around Shinso's eyes darkened. 'But it's also because you can't help much with her training. Izumi's a power-based fighter, like me or Bakugo. She needs a human punching bag that can defend against her and predict her moves. Compared to you, I'm a better candidate.'

Shinso looked away. 'Fine.'

Izumi grabbed both of their hands, and both boys were quite surprised and embarrassed at this fact. Walking forwards, she swung them and gave a toothy grin to both boys. 'Stop talking and more moving! We need to make the most of our time training!'

—

The gyms were empty, thankfully.

This gave them plenty of room to practice in a large space, using all the equipment and supplies that they had to offer, including all the training grounds that they had, from ocean to a burning building. It was very big, especially for Izumi.

'Did they renovate the gyms? It feels bigger.'

Todoroki looked at her. 'It does?' He looked at Shinso.

Shinso smirked and crossed his arms. 'Probably just you. You were what? 5 foot 5 when you were a boy? Now you've shrunk to about 5 foot..'

'Seriously!?'

'Yep.'

Izumi pouted. 'I worked so hard to grow taller! Are you telling me that all that hard work's gone to waste?'

Shinso snickered. 'Shortie.' he teased. Izumi glared.

'What are you two talking about?' Todoroki walked up beside Izumi, and Shinso started snickering even more. Shinso was tall, but Todoroki was taller, and standing next to Izumi made her look like a complete midget.

'Stop laughing at me!' But that only caused Shinso to laugh harder, holding onto his stomach. 'It's not my fault that I'm short!' Todoroki was completely oblivious to this, and could only look at the duo, confused.

Shinso finally managed to get himself together, and he leaned against the wall, exhausted from all the laughter. 'O-Okay, I haven't laughed like that in a long time.'

'It wasn't even funny! Why did you laugh so hard?'

''Are you saying that laughing isn't good, shortie? I just like to laugh.'

'You looked pretty depressed the first time I saw you.'

Todoroki coughed to get their attention. 'I really don't know what you two are doing, but could we get onto training. Half the period's gone already.'

That got their attention, especially Izumi's.

'Half the period!? Gone already!? Then we'll have to hurry up then! What should we do first? Exercises? Training?'

'I was thinking about starting with a simple spar.' started Shinso.

Todoroki nodded. 'I was thinking of the same.' Shinso looked a bit annoyed at the fact that he had agreed on the same thing as Todoroki. 'We could see each others' moves and provide tips for them. Shinso, could you referee?'

'I'm still angry that I don't get to fight you, pretty boy.'

'I would let you, but you'd probably lose in about a minute.'

Shinso glared at Todoroki, who allowed a small smile to appear on his face. 'Fine.' he said finally, walking to the side of the court.

The duo hesitated for a second, but then followed him as well.

'Do you want me to go easy on you?' asked Todoroki worriedly, as they walked.

'Of course not! What kind of question is that?'

'I mean, you just came back from the hospital.'

'Yeah, but—'

'I should go easy on you.'

'Where did you get that from? I told you, I don't need help!'

'You're sure.'

'Absolutely.'

An ear-piercing screech went through the air, and Izumi jumped at the sudden sound, while Todoroki stared at Shinso, annoyed. Shinso stood there, a bored expression on his face.

'Are you two going to ever start? You both were just talking about how little time we have left, yet both of you are still here, wasting YOUR time?'

Slightly embarrassed, both of them walked to opposite sides and Shinso scoffed.

'Are you 100% sure that I should use all my strength on you?' asked Todoroki.

Both of them had quickly reached their ends, and Todoroki turned around to see the expression on Izumi's face. All the feminine features were overpowered by a green-eyed glare, and her hair seemed to float due to the intensity. She smiled, not a smile that you would give to a lover, or a friend, but rather, to someone you truly respected. The same smile that she gave him at the Sports Festival.

'Don't worry about that! Give me your best shot, Todoroki!'

Todoroki smiled, This was the reason that he had used his left side of his body. This overwhelming respect and determination emitted from her were enough to inspire a whole stadium.

'Fine, but don't be surprised if you lose…again.' he added, fists clenched.

The smile on Izumi's face grew more determined.

'Both sides, ready positions!' called Shinso, and the two of them grew tense, waiting for the call. '3, 2, 1, go!'

As soon as Shinso finished speaking, the temperature of the room dropped to below zero, as Shouto Todoroki activated his quirk. Ice shot up from the sole of Todoroki's shoe, and it traveled towards Izumi quickly, destroying debris in the way. She reacted instantly, spreading her quirk along her entire body. The familiar green lightning flickered all over her skin, and using 5% of her power, she jumped to the right of the ice, barely avoiding. Surprise ran through her, as it did with Todoroki and Shinso. Usually, Todoroki's ice was basically unavoidable, unless you destroyed it before it hit you. To dodge something that fast… had her quirk developed so much? She landed on both feet, feeling as light as a feather.

There was no time to think about it though, as Todoroki swiftly sent more paths of ice heading towards her. With her newfound speed, Izumi swiftly ran towards him, leaving trails of her lightning in the midst. Crossing half the field in a few seconds, she made her way through all the debris. As the first spike reached her, she jumped, her shoes clicking on the ice, and spun into the air with the impact force, avoiding all the remaining spikes on the ground. Her green eyes flickered with the same energy as her lightning and were filled with determination.

Clenching her fist, Izumi put 5% of her power into her punch and launched it towards Todoroki. Narrowing his eyes, Todoroki intercepted it with a punch of his own. The punches connected, and a ripple of air expanded from the punch, ruffling their hair, Izumi's eyes widened for a second. She had used 5%, and yet Todoroki could intercept her punch easily? Another punch was delivered but was blocked as easily as the first one. Todoroki sent another wave of ice spikes, and she jumped back to dodge it. If we continue fighting like this, I won't last very long! she thought, catching her breath.

Todoroki took the offensive this time, running towards her, delivering punches to her stomach, arms and legs. Due to her small figure and enhanced speed, dodging the punches were much easier. No matter how much Todoroki punched and kicked, she would dodge them all. Suddenly, a patch of ice slid under her shoe, and she stumbled. Taking the window of chance, Todoroki winded up a strong punch, that delivered itself to Izumi's stomach. The strength behind it was enough to make her cough blood, and recoil from the pain. Quickly jumping back, she held one hand to the impact point and closed one eye from the pain, trying to recover.

Swiftly reacting to the situation, Todoroki sent a column of fire towards Izumi. The heat raged like a monster in the air, devouring all the space and air in front of it. The heat from the blast invigorated the entire room with warmth and melted the ice spikes instantly. The sudden change of temperature in the air created a small explosion that blasted and ruffled the hair of everyone on the court. Shinso had to put his arms in front of his face to protect against the blast of hot air. Closing one of his eyes from the air, he looked around desperately.

'Where's did Izumi go? Did you kill her or something?!' asked Shinso hurriedly. But Todoroki was focused on the air in front of him, where the shadow of Izumi wavered. By concentrating all the energy of her quirk in her legs, she had jumped inhumanly high in the air, managing to dodge the column of fire. Pushing up against a piece of debris, she practically flew towards Todoroki, and punched him with all her might, putting 10% of her power into her right hook. His arms blocked the punch, but the force behind it caused his boots to start slipping back. 'Tch!' he muttered, and pressed his weight onto the ground, to prevent him from slipping even more. Quicker than the eye could catch, she shifted all her weight onto her left side and placed all her power into her left arm.

'One for All, 30%!' screamed Izumi. She brought her fist towards him, and aimed right for his chest, placing her power all in the one punch. Lightning flickered from her skin to his. The time for Full Cowling's almost ending, she thought, bringing her fist forwards, I'll have to end this in one go! Her fist soared forwards, and intercepted with the..air?

The sheer amount of power faded from her arm, and her quirk lost its effects. Whoa!' she yelled, as the aftereffects of her quirk shot her forwards. Losing her balance, she was about to fall when her arm was caught by…a hand? Looking to the side, she saw Todoroki's hand on her arm, gripping it tightly.

When did he…

Grabbing her arm, Todoroki bent it back towards him and pressed her to the ground. Swiftly, he grabbed her other arm and pressed onto her back. Izumi tried to kick him by using her legs, but they were pressed down as well.

Two bouts of panting were heard from both of them, at different tempos. Izumi's face was pressed against the ground, and her clothes were drenched with sweat. Looking up, she met Todoroki's two-colored eyes, that were filled with an intense determination and relief.

'I win, Izumi.'

A whistle was heard from the sidelines, and they both looked to the side, absolutely exhausted. Shinso's whites were widened, and the whistle was still dangling in his mouth. 'You hero department people… really don't take it easy, do you?'

The two were still panting and completely drenched in sweat. Todoroki slowly released her hands and got off her back, collapsing on the ground, Izumi rolled over from the ground and stared at the sky, slowly controlling her breath.

Shinso sighed. 'I really did think that you two were going to kill each other, you know? I couldn't have stopped it like the teachers at the Sports Festival!' He stared at both of them in the eye. 'Don't do anything like that again, please, both of you.'

'Sorry.' said Todoroki, while he tried and failed to control his breathing.

Izumi sat up slowly, eyes closed and said. 'S-Sorry.'

Sighing again, Shinso slowly walked over to them, and sat down on the ground, frustration clearly shown on his face. 'When I mean a 'spar', I meant a nice, easy, friendly battle where you'll use your quirks on each other. Still a battle, but nobody gets hurt, and certainly **NOBODY WOULD SUFFER INTERNAL BLEEDING!'** he yelled, pointing at Izumi.

Izumi coughed again. 'You.. really didn't hold back, did you?"

'**YES, IM GLAD YOU NOTICED**.'

Todoroki looked away. 'I.. might have gone a bit overboard.'

'**YEP, I THINK THAT SHOOTING A BEAM OF FIRE AT SOMEONE IS QUITE OVERBOARD**.'

Shinso took a deep breath and started to breathe slowly through his mouth. 'There, I'm done ranting about your safety issues, though that's something you both NEED to be more careful about in the future.'

'Got it, mom' said Todoroki. Izumi giggled at the comment, while Shinso glared at Todoroki. Sighing, he turned and looked at Izumi.

'Though there are a ton of issues that we need to face, the main one we need to figure out is your quirk.' he started. 'Did turning into a girl have any effects on it? Because it seemed very different the last time that I saw it.'

'Well…you see—I didn't use my quirk at all after the incident, so could be that, or it could just be training at the internships. I'm not entirely sure.'

Todoroki leaned forwards. 'Your build is completely different now. Before, you would usually overpower your opponents with strength, but now, it's more focused on speed. I would advise you to think of ways to use your speed to your advantage.'

'What he said.' interrupted Shinso. 'If you used your speed stats better against him, you might've won.'

'Really.' said Todoroki

'Don't get so cocky pretty boy, she would've definitely won.'

'So', said Izumi,' leaning backward, I'll have to think about using my quirk for speed than strength, right…' She sighed.

'Is there anything wrong with that?' asked Shinso, confused. Todoroki cocked his head to the right, confused as well

She laughed. 'I don't have any problems with a difference in my quirk or that it's changed, but some other people might…'

—

Somewhere, in the same school, Bakugo Katsuki sneezed.


	10. Relationships

'Listen to me, Kacchan!'

'Shut up Deku! And stop following me home!'

'It's been a week! You need to talk to me!'

'I won't!'

Izumi walked angrily towards him and grabbed his shoulder, turning him to face her. 'We won't pass if—'

Bakugo hit her hand away from him. 'I don't give a shit!' He yelled. 'I don't need your help in the exams, I can pass with just my own power!'

'That's _not_ what the exams are about!'

'I don't care!" he shouted.

'Neither of us will be able to pass if we don't work together!' she shouted back. Izumi stood up straight and clenched her fists, face filled with frustration. 'I know you want to pass Kacchan, I know you do. But why,' her voice lost its intensity, and was replaced by an almost pleading, 'why don't you accept the fact that we have to work together?'

'As I'd said, I don't need help from someone like you!'

'Yes, you do!I'm your partner! We need to work together on this!'

Izumi tried to grab Bakugo again, but he pushed her away from him, making her fall on the ground. For a moment, Bakugo glanced, then turned away from her.

'Then who?' yelled Izumi. 'Who do you need help from? We need to at least talk Kacchan!' She glared. 'Just please, talk to me!'

Bakugo glared at the girl on the ground. '_You_ wouldn't understand, Deku.'

—

'So, I'm guessing that the conversation didn't go well?'

Shinso leaned, arms crossed against the wall, watching Izumi work out. She wiped off the sweat from her mouth, and looked at Shinso, panting.

'Is it that obvious?' she asked, standing straight.

He put his hand on his chin. 'Let's see…You seem tired, you aren't smiling, and the positive aura that you've had this entire week is gone.' He said. A small smile appeared on his face. 'I knew something was really wrong when Uraraka greeted you this morning, and you didn't turn into a human tomato.

Izumi's face, pale a few seconds ago, was now filled with a blinding pink. 'It was _that_ obvious before?!' she asked, hands covering her face.

'It was, but I'm just pretty good at reading people. So Uraraka probably doesn't know about it yet, don't worry.'

'T-Thank goodness.'

A calm expression appeared on the boy's face, ad he turned towards her. 'Todoroki has a meeting with Yaoyouzu about the exam, so it's just going to be me and you. You're welcome to rant to me about it if you want.'

Izumi let a loud groan to the air, and her focus went back to the punching bag in front of her. Thudding her head on the punching bag, she started to lightly punch the bag with one hand, and slowly, the power behind the punches increased. Frustration built up inside of her, and she let it out bit by bit through her punches.

'Izumi…?' asked Shinso cautiously.

The girl didn't reply, and her other hand started to punch the bag as well, pushing the bag further backward each time with the force that she applied. The punches slowly got more and more powerful, as she subconsciously activated her quirk through her hands. Her movements got faster and faster, as she let out more of her emotions through her fists. Small flickers of the lightning danced around her skin, as she let out one particularly hard punch, using about 15% of her power, and knocked the bag straight to the ground. She breathed heavily with her fist still in the air.

A wet towel fell on her face. Prying it off with her fingers, she looked at it, and then looked at Shinso. 'Clean your face.' He called, walking over to her, 'It's covered in sweat.'

Continuing to pant heavily, she took the towel and started wiping her face with it. 'Thanks,' she called out to Shinso and sat down on the ground. He shrugged.

'You needed it.' he sat in front of her, his hand leaning on his cheek. 'I've seen you emotional before,' he started, and Izumi looked at him, surprised. 'Sports Festival.' He reminded her. 'I see a pattern in all the times you get emotional, in every incident, you're always trying to save someone.' He counted on his fingers. 'When you went against me at the festival, you tried to change my mindset about my quirk. During Todoroki's battle, you were yelling to him about his quirk?…' He shook his head. 'Anyways, I assume that it's the same condition this time.'

The small hand clenched around the towel.

'S-Shinso—'

'This time, it's about Bakugo, right?'

'…'

'It's what I said, right?' Shinso ruffled his hair. 'Izumi, let me ask you a question. Why do you care so much about Bakugo? It's obvious that he dislikes you, and treats you horribly. ' He made eye contact. 'You don't have to work this hard, just to able to _talk_ to him. So why? Why do this much work?'

'Shinso, you-you wouldn't under—'

'Then _tell_ me, Izumi. Tell me why you put up with him.'

Her hands clenched tighter on the towel that she held and then relaxed. 'I…I can't tell you.'

Silence fell in the air, and the tension only grew with it.

Shinso sighed and looked at Izumi. 'If it's a personal issue, then I can't really do anything about it,… can I?He said quietly and stood up.

Izumi bit her lip in concern. 'Shinso…It's not you. I wouldn't just… not tell you, it really is just between me and Kacchan.'

Shinso looked at her, then looked away. 'There's five minutes before the exam starts, I think that you should have some time to yourself about this situation.'

Izumi gave him a shaky smile. 'Y-Yeah... I think that—that would be good.'

Silence fell between them again. Izumi's small hands fidgeted with her hair.

''Well, good luck.' Giving her a small wave, Shinso walked away to the entrance.

'Shinso?' started Izumi, and the boy looked back, staring at her. 'Um… I just want to say. You..really don't have to worry about Kacchan and I. I've known him since we were toddlers so I can tell when..when he has, um, something on his mind. So… I think I think that—'

'I understand.' Izumi looked up in surprise. 'As I've said before, I'm pretty good at reading people. Bakugo's been acting strangely around you, and according to what I've heard of him before I came here, his behavior is definitely different.' He sighed. 'Izumi…he's Bakugo. He has a boiling temper, and If I were you, I…I wouldn't save him.

'I would!' said Izumi, hands on her chest. 'Kacchan's my friend since childhood, I have to save him!'

'Izumi…You shouldn't—'

'A hero is someone who saves people! If I can't save Kacchan from what he's going through, how will I save anyone else?'

'Izumi…'

'I just…I just want to see Kacchan be happy…'

'…'

The bell stopped their conversation.

**_THIS IS THE FIRST CALL FOR THE FINAL EXAM! WILL ALL STUDENTS PLEASE MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE GYM. _**exclaimed the announcer.

'Ah! We, we got so carried away that—I need to grab my bag—the gym—'

Her bag swiftly fell in her arms, and she caught it on instinct. 'Hurry,' said Shinso, looking away, 'or you'll be called as absent.'

'Y-Yeah! Got it. Um, sorry about, um, ranting to you all of a sudden.'

'It's fine.'

She quickly hung the bag on her arm and ran towards the door. Before she left, however, she glanced back at Shinso.

'Shinso?' she called.

'This better be quick.' he said.

'There's a question that's been nagging me for the past few days…What did you want to say to me on your first day of school?'

He paused for a few seconds and then waved it off. 'Nothing important, now hurry before you're late!' She nodded and ran out of the room, leaving Shinso by himself in the gym.

Izumi had already changed into her hero costume prior to the training so she wouldn't waste time on changing. Charging through the hallways, she bolted to the gym, her legs running as fast as they could. It wasn't a very long run from the training grounds to the gym, and as she ran outside, she could catch sight of a small group of people. Skidding and sliding on the sidewalks, she finally made her way there, at the end of the group. Uraraka caught sight of her and pushed her way towards Izumi.

'That was a close one, Deku-chan! It really isn't like you to be late.'

Panting, Izumi looked up and saw a group of Yuuei teachers coming in through the gym facilities. She'd made it just in time. As she recovered from her long run, she heard other students talking about the sudden appearances of the teachers.

'Why are there so many teachers?"

'What's that huge lump on sensei's neck?'

'I'm so nervous for the final exam!"

Aizawa coughed, and the crowd of Class 1-A students grew quiet.

'As you may or may not know,' started Aizawa, who was at the front of the group and strangely, had a huge lump in his bandages. 'This year's exam is going to be mainly focusing with your partner to destroy robots worth different points, like the entrance exam.'

Everyone nodded. Denki whispered to Mina. 'Thank goodness the older students told us about the exam information, or else we probably wouldn't pass the exam!' Izumi had to agree with him on that, working with Kacchan was already hard, she didn't need anything else to make it harder. She had worked hard the entire week, focusing on the robots and their build, to find weaknesses in their amour. After a week of research, she was definitely ready.

'But,' and everyone perked up hearing Aizawa-sensei talk again, 'this year…' The pile of bandages leaped into the air, and landed in front of them, revealing Nezu. 'This year will be a little different!'

'Principal Nezu!?" shouted Mina. 'What are you doing here?

'That's exactly what I'll be explaining!' exclaimed Nezu. 'Fighting robots certainly was last year's exam, but there have been so many recent villain encounters including Yuuei students, and that has become a problem for us, the teachers at Yuuei. So, in order to cope with this new change, we've decided to change the exam!' Nezu gestured to all the teachers surrounding him. 'Instead of fighting robots, each pair will be assigned with a teacher to fight!'

'What!?'

'Seriously?!"

Nezu continued to explain the reasons behind changing the exam, but Izumi couldn't concentrate on what was happening. Their small window of success was suddenly turned even smaller. Her research, all the research that she did over the week was all for nothing. She gritted her teeth and looked at Bakugo, who was trying to avoid eye contact. Kacchan, you and I both know this. She thought. If we don't work together, we won't stand a chance against the teachers!

'The first team,' continued Nezu, 'Team Bakugo and Izumi, will be fighting against…'

A shadow suddenly appeared from the sky. 'I have entered in a completely normal way!" exclaimed a familiar voice, and All Might crashed into the ground, making a heroic entrance. Everyone else started to chatter and get excited under the aura of the No.1 Hero. Under normal circumstances, both Bakugo and Izumi would've been relieved to hear that voice. But in a place like this, both of their eyes widened in fear, fear of what was next. How would a team like us, with no preparation or teamwork, defeat someone like All Might?

—

It was a beautiful day in Japan. The spring air was warm, yet had a slight chill in the air. The sakura blossoms bloomed and draped the road in a blanket of gentle pink. The sun shone high in the sky, rays of sunlight making rainbows on the freshly fallen dew of the morning. Students of all different talents were outside, preparing for exams. Yet, Hitoshi Shinso had to spend it in a small, dark room.

For about the 5th time that hour, he groaned loudly out of boredom. While the other people in his class were preparing for the final exams, he had to sit in a small room for the entire afternoon because there was nobody available to supervise him. Lounging on the couch, his eyes darted around the room, looking for things to entertain himself before the exams started. Suddenly, there came a sharp knock on his door. Startling Shinso, he got up to greet his uninvited guest, happy for finally, something to happen.

'Is it Sensei? Please get me out of here. I'm absolutely bored in he—' His sentence didn't get to finish. As soon as he opened the door, his eyes met the cold gaze of Todoroki Shoto. The boy stood, towering over Shinso, with a face devoid of emotion. The bored monotone expression on his face quickly switched over to a smirk, so swift and convincing, it was like putting on a mask.

'Long time no see. What do you want from me, pretty boy?'

'Drop the act, Shinso.' said Todoroki, still emitting his cold glare. 'We both know that you're faking it.'

'Fine.' The emotion mask was taken off, and his face returned to the unmoving expression. 'It's not like I want to act all cheery in front of you, anyways.' Gesturing him to come in, Shinso walked back to his couch, and Todoroki followed. Shinso sat back on the couch. 'So, what does the _great and mighty_ Todoroki want with me?' he asked, goading him.

Todoroki pulled a chair from the neighboring table and sat on it, while still staring daggers at Shinso.

'You know what I'm here for, Shinso.'

'I'm afraid I don't, my apologies.'

The boy threw a death glare at him, and Shinso looked back, unaffected. Silence hung in the air, like how one's body would. An eerie cold silence that remained unbroken as the boys continued to stare.

'I want you to stay away from Izumi, Shinso.'

**AN:**

Hello everyone! This is just a quick note to thank everyone for helping me reach 100 subscribers to this fanfic! I definitely didn't expect this to gain as much attention as it is right now, and I am really thankful to everyone because this is a huge confidence boost for me to continue writing. If you have any ideas or possible one-shots (because I will be fitting some of them in between the arcs), please leave a review!

Thank you all! ヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ


	11. Rainy Day

Silence filled the room. Like a wave of water, it crashed and filled the entire space. One second, then two, then five. It became so quiet that it was almost deafening. Yet, the silence broke. In the middle of the silent ocean, two rapidly increasing heartbeats were heard, loud and clear, vibrating in the ears.

Shinso, for the first time Todoroki had ever seen, had a face of…shock. No, shock wasn't the right word. It was a face between disbelief, shock, and confusion. An emotion that couldn't be put into simple words, but you would only understand if you saw it for yourself. Then, in the blink of an eye, a mask was put onto his face, a mask devoid of emotion, and it covered, it hid the strong emotions underneath.

'Is that what you've wanted to tell me since the first day?' asked Shinso. When there was no answer from the boy in front of him, he leaned forward and made eye contact with Todoroki, whose multicolored eyes were staring daggers at him. 'What a rude thing to say to someone.' he added.

'I know.' replied Todoroki bluntly, continuing to glare at the boy, and the room was filled with a gentler, but nevertheless another wave of silence. Whether purposeful or not, the right side of Todoroki started to react. Light white frost fell from his arm, mixing with the air, creating an almost magical-like mist. It swirled on the ground, spreading its cold around the room. The temperature slowly started to drop in the room.

'To be honest, I'm quite hurt. I thought we got along quite well throughout the week.' He fidgeted with his fingers. 'Who knew you harbored these kinds of feelings towards me?'

'Like you didn't. I just didn't show my emotions as much as you did. Your emotions were quite obvious, from the way you acted towards me on the first day, and the point that you didn't want me coming with you and Midoriya.'

'Really? I guess it is really hard to act nice in front of someone like you.' He looked at Todoroki. 'Though Izumi did fall for it, thinking that we were friends.'

Todoroki scoffed. The gentle layer of mist that surrounded the ground started to solidify, becoming not so gentle, as the temperatures emitted from his body became more extreme. A layer of frost was forming on his arm, as it reacted to the cold expelled from his body. The room's temperature dropped another few degrees, as the intensity of his quirk grew. 'Friends? ' asked Todoroki. 'I don't remember that being the word to describe two people that hate each other.'

Shinso leaned forwards. 'Well, I can't deny that, now can I?' He said ominously, and stared into Todoroki's eyes.

As they were talking, the right side of Todoroki's body continued to expel cold air, until the room slowly reached the below zero line. Both of their warm breaths' could be clearly seen in the freezer-like room, like cold fire dispersing in the air. Some parts of Todoroki's body were already covered in a thick layer of frost, from the aftereffects of his quirk. Even in the extreme conditions, however, Shinso didn't look a bit affected.

A patter was heard on the window. Then another, until the window was turned into an orchestra of sounds from the water raining down. If you looked at the sky, you could still see the cheerful scene weaved from the sunlight and greenery, but the sun was slowly being covered by layers and layers of clouds, like clear water being stained by ink.

Shinso stood up, and walked leisurely to the window, Todoroki watching his every step, eyes narrowing in caution. Leaning his arm on the windowsill, he looked out through the glass, to the outside world. The still spring scenery was now decorated with raindrops and mist, as the water fell from the sky. Beyond the greenery, the square which had so many people in it mere minutes ago was now empty. A flash of green light caught his eye, and his pupils darted to the horizon. Orange. Green. These two colors streaked in the air, intertwining and fighting, vibrant against the grey sky. He looked back at Todoroki.

'I'm not going to stay away from Izumi, Todoroki.'

There was a pause. Then, the room's temperature, which was cold before, dropped drastically, wavering dangerously at the -20-degree line. Todoroki's face, which was lit up with the little light left in the room, now had an unsettling shadow draping on it. Even without showing his face, he gave off an intense aura, like the calm before the storm.

'What..did you say?'

Shinso sighed, and then shrugged his shoulders at Todoroki. 'What did you expect from me, Todoroki? Do you think that just by coming in here, and telling me to stay away from Izumi, I would do that?'

Thunder gently rumbled in the distance, and the magnitude and amount of the water raining down on the window increased. Streaks of water dripped down the window, faster and faster as more water accumulated on the pane of glass. The scenery blurred.

'Shinso…'

'From the moment you stepped in this room, you haven't given me any reason to leave her side. The only thing that you've done is talk _shit_ about me, and I don't find that very convincing.'

Todoroki's hands started to slowly, but surely clench up into fists. Veins showed up on his hands, time to time, as the strong emotions he harbored slowly started to build up in them. Ice on his arm froze up, fell apart, crumbled—his quirk was unstable. However, Shinso continued to speak.

'Personally, _I_ don't see anything wrong with me and Izumi's relationship. I haven't done anything even _close_ to hurt, harm or endanger her, both mentally and physically.' He counted every fact stated on his fingers. 'She is happy and comfortable around me and doesn't show any sign of discomfort or fear. So, what's seems to be the problem?'

'So far…' muttered Todoroki. 'You haven't done anything to her…so far.' His body started to tremble as kept his emotions in check.

'That's still what you think about me? Why would you ever, ever think of something lik—'

A sudden explosion of cold air interrupted his sentence, as all the concentrated freezing air in the room was released at once. Standing before him, Todoroki stood up in his from his chair, hair flying from the wind created by his quirk. Small ice spikes grew from the ground next to him, like roots spouting through the ground. His right arm, covered only by frost mere seconds ago, now had a thick layer of ice on it.

Walking up to Shinso in one stride, he grabbed his collar and pushed him against the wall, using enough power to crack it a little. His right hand reacted to the fabric, and it slowly spread frost down the Yuuei PE shirt, tinting it with hints of whites and blues of his ice.

'This…_this_ is what I dislike about you, the reason that I want you away from Midoriya.' Todoroki glared and pushed the boy again against the wall. 'You _talk_ about people as if they were your friends as if you don't have ulterior motives for them!' He panted, as the boy looked back at him, uninterested.

'What do you mean by that. Shoto?'

'Don't _ever_ call me that.' Todoroki gritted his teeth. 'Ever since you transferred here, I've found you to be suspicious. Your personality in front of Midoriya…its completely changed. During the Sports Festival, you acted cautious, and cold towards her. But now, ' He looked down, 'its the opposite.'

Todoroki glared with all his might at the purple-haired boy, eyes filled with anger. 'You're the type of person that would only help somebody else if there was something useful you could get out of it, that's the only reason you would become friends with Midoriya.'

He gripped harder. 'Tell me! What do you want to use Izumi for!'

Lightning flashed through the window, and it illuminated Todoroki's desperate face, his blue eye shining in the darkness. Their shadows flashed and then disappeared into the darkness once more. The right side of Shinso's face was lit up by the yellow light. His face was a painting of disinterest and a terrifying calmness, like the faces of the dead. Purple eyes shone under golden light, staring into Todoroki's pupils.

In situations like this, most people would panic, make excuses, or show at least _some_ kind of raw emotion. With Shinso however, his face of absolutely no emotion was unsettling and just _wrong_.

'Todoroki, could you please let me go?'

'Like I wo-' Even though those words came out of his mouth, his body didn't react the same way. His entire hand relaxed and drew back, releasing Shinso from the grasp of Todoroki. Todoroki gasped in surprise and his pupils widened as the purple-haired boy easily got himself out of his grasp. Shinso fixed his collar and touched his back, which had spots of purple and green on it.

'You really didn't hold back, pretty boy. That's going to leave a mark' He looked up at him. 'Did you forget my quirk already? How disappointing.'

Todoroki tried desperately to move his entire body, but it was completely paralyzed in place, unable to move. His body was fixed to the one spot on the ground, like a marble statue. The only parts of his body that were unfrozen seemed to be his mouth and pupils, which he used to give a frustrated stare at Shinso.

'Don't look at me like that, there's no use trying.'

'Midoriya broke free, _she_ did it.'

'Izumi was…a special case.' Shinso walked past him slowly as he spoke, as if he was mocking him of his uselessness. Turning around, he added, 'Could you use your quirk to warm this place up? It's absolutely freezing in here.'

Once again, Todoroki's body acted before his mind did. It didn't move, but the left side of his body started to steam in the freezing air, and small fires popped up all over his arms. Multicolored sparks flew from the fires, creating a miniature fireworks display. The ice in the room slowly pooled into water, and then even the water turned to steam as the temperature of the room raised more and more. He gritted his teeth as Shinso forcefully activated his quirk.

'That's enough.' Shinso clapped his hands, and Todoroki's quirk turned off. Panting, his face flushed red from the use of his quirk, and he glared at the purple-haired boy standing in front of him, who stared back with an almost innocent-like gaze.

'You're…You're finally showing who you really are.'

'Am I? How do you know that I'm not acting?'

'Then…why would you control me? Is this why you want to get close to Midoriya? To exploit her quirk?'

A sigh was heard, and the boy in front of him slowly started to walk over to him. Even though Shinso was smaller than Todoroki, it didn't make him any less intimidating. The sensation of goosebumps prickled down his arms, and his back was felt with a peculiar cold sensation, that ran down his spine. Sweat trickled down his forehead, Shinso's eyes connected with his, and it burned with strong emotion. Anger, envy, wrath, Todoroki didn't know which one, but just the sight of those eyes were enough to strike fear inside of him.

''Todoroki…how long have we known each other?'

A small ripple of shock rippled through Todoroki, but it was quickly replaced by a wave of suspicion, as the boy narrowed his eyes and kept his mouth shut.

'How strange. You weren't cautious about my quirk before, so why now?" Todoroki continued to glare at him but didn't say anything. Shinso scoffed.

'You can reply to me, you know. I already have control over you, so replying to my question wouldn't do you any harm.'

'…Why should I answer your question?'

Shinso wagged his finger. 'I'm afraid that's wrong. The correct answer would be for 1 week. Actually, less than one week, because the only times where you would come into a 20m radius of me was eating and training with Izumi.'

'What does this have to do with anything?'

The purple-haired boy walked even closer to Todoroki, to the point where they could hear each others' breathing clearly. Todoroki's eyes were filled with frustration, as he tried and failed to move as the boy walked.

'Other than the 'week' we've spent together, and observing my performances at the Sports Festival,' Shinso leaned even closer, speaking directly into Todoroki's ear,' have you, Todoroki Shoto, ever spent any other time being and learning about who _I_ am?'

If Todoroki wasn't already frozen in place, he would've. The amount of emotion directed through that one sentence was genuine, but it had an edge to it, like a rope about to snap. Doubt was the core of that sentence, and that emotion spread through Todoroki, numbing his senses. He managed to remain a calm facade.

'No.' he said firmly.

'Then why do you think, you get the right to say what kind of person I am?'

'…What?'

'You heard me. Why do you, Todoroki Shoto, get the right to say what kind of person someone is and what thoughts they have about other people?'

Todoroki paused for a minute, letting the shock wear out.

'…I saw your performance at the Sports Festival, and your attitude towards Midoriya, towards the hero department, towards…everyone was just so COLD. Then once you come here, your attitude completely changes? It's too sudden, too suspicious, you have to have something planned.' He glared. 'And it isn't something good.'

The rain slowly started to die down outside, the thunderstorm slowly disappearing. One streak of sunlight managed to make its way out of the blanket of clouds, and shone through the window like a spotlight on Shinso's face, making the shadows even darker.

Shinso rubbed his hands. 'Todoroki, I've found something suspicious about you as well. From what I've seen at the Sports Festival and comments from your friends, your personality also changed after the Sports Festival.' He counted his facts. 'Nicer, warmer, more easygoing, these were just some of the adjectives used to describe it.'

'Do you have a problem with that?'

'As a matter of fact, I do.' Shinso looked up at the boy. 'Why is it that when you change personalities so quickly, it's completely fine. When I do it, it immediately turns into something suspicious?'

'That's because… Your…—your quir—'

'It's my quirk, right? Because NOBODY would believe somebody who has a villainous quirk, that's just one of the disgusting rules society has set for us, for the people with so-called weak or villainous quirks!' He hit the wall with his fist.

'Most of you don't care about us! They think that they're superior because of their quirks! That's why I hate people in your class, people that judge so quickly and rely only on their quirks!'

Shinso panted for air, and Todoroki's eyes widened, as he saw for the first time, Shinso lose complete control over his emotions. It was only a short moment though, as the boy swiftly put back on his emotionless mask after.

He walked back to his couch and waved his hand. With a start, Todoroki fell forwards, as he regained control of his own body. He panted and then pointed weakly at Shinso. 'You're—you're the same…You don't get the right—the right to…' He glared at him. 'You would only become friends with someone if they were useful to you! You don't have the right to judge me or my classmates either!'

Shinso looked back at him, eyes devoid of any emotion. 'Personally, I think what you've just said is more than enough to judge you, Todoroki. Coming into my resting room and not only accusing me of something but also attacking me with your quirk is quite the crime, y' know. As for your classmates…well, the events of the first day should be more than enough.'

Todoroki was about to retort but was cut off by a rustling sound in the speakers. Both turned their gazes towards the speaker, which began announcing.

**_BAKUGO AND MIDORIYA GROUP: GOAL MET, EXAM PASSED. SECOND GROUP, SHOTO AND YAOYOUZU GROUP, PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE EXAM GROUNDS._**

'Whoops. Looks like I kept you in here for too long. Sorry' Shinso walked over to the door, and opened it for Todoroki, gesturing out the door. 'Do you need help getting up, pretty boy?'

'Like I'd need help from you.'

Todoroki weakly got up, and slowly walked over to the exit, legs trudging on the ground. His breathing was tattered and irregular.

'Congratulate Izumi on your way there for me.'

The red and white-haired boy glared sideways, looking down onto Shinso.

'This isn't over, Hitoshi.'

Shinso, for the first time since Todoroki came in, _smiled_. It wasn't a happy smile, and it certainly wasn't friendly. It was a smile that you definitely wouldn't see when someone was threatening you. A completely fearless smile shone on Hitoshi Shinso's face.

'I didn't say it was.'

With a final glare, Todoroki walked out the dark room, and the door closed abruptly behind him.

The purple-haired boy stood there for a while, his head on the door, then, he glanced around the room. Without anybody else in the room, small waves of silence, and only silence started to fill the room again. Shinso gently hit his head on the door, and then turned around, his body slowly sliding down the door to the ground.

He put one hand on his face, shadowing it with darkness. A small giggle escaped his lips, then it turned into a laugh, getting louder and louder with every second, his eyes gleaming in the shadows. His face was filled with such a confusing emotion, and you couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying or in pain or just plain..._hysterical_.

'K-Kah!' The laughing turned into bouts of coughing, each one violently shaking his entire body as it passed through. He took his hand and coughed into the palm of it until the forceful air from his lungs stopped. He grimaced. Opening one eye, he looked at his palm. Pale only mere seconds ago, his hand was now decorated with a splat of vibrant red color, with droplets of crimson on the ground as well.

Shinso's eyes darkened, and he gave a painful smile.

'So getting someone to use their quirk forcefully still takes too much energy…' he muttered. Another cough made its way out of his mouth, and a line of blood ran down his lips. He wrapped his hands around his legs, and nestled his head on the lower part of his body, eyes closing from exhaustion.

_'You would only become friends with someone if they were useful to you!'_

Opening his eyes, he raised his head up, only enough for his eyes to look forwards, out the window. The thunderstorm had almost completely faded away, and the sunny day was back, as the clouds covering the sun dispersed one by one. The rain still fell, but gently, dropping onto the window with almost no sound. The small rays of light shone through the water on the window, creating a rainbow of faded colors on the ground.

'…Is that so?'


	12. Author's Note

**Hello everyone!**

**Sorry for not posting anything this week. I recently read through the first few chapters on this and thought that they were absolute trash and that no one should torture their eyes with it.**

**So I rewrote them.**

**I completely changed the first chapter into something more feasible to happen to Izuku other than 'this random villain showed up just to use his quirk on him for the sole purpose of moving along the plot.' It actually took me a long time to write that chapter and I have 3 entire drafts on it because of that one dang character's design.**

**He will play quite a major role in this fanfic, however.**

**There have been some minor changes to the rest of the chapters, including more foreshadowing towards the Shinso and Todoroki 'fight' and a few edits.**

**I do have a plotline for this fic, and it won't be just a random bunch of one-shots that I decided to create an introduction to. There will be some changes to the plot due to the gender change and/or for the sake of making my plotline easier.**

**If you do have some ideas for some fillers that I could put in between the episodes, please let me know. (anything sexual will be ignored)**

**I...don't really have anything else to say...**

**Thank you for subscribing to my fic though! It really makes up for the times I stayed up until 12 to just write the Shinso and Todoroki dialogue, and the reviews that you guys leave are honestly, really _really_ great.**

**Whenever someone reviews something good about the fic, I close the tab, squeal, that open it again, and it is just the most immature thing that I never thought I would do, but I just want you to know that your reviews really mean a lot.**

**The Bakugo and Izumi Exams will be in the next chapter, so you'll probably see that up by Friday!**

**P.S: for reader Bonzenz - I do read the manga and I understand that Shinso said that his quirk would make him unconscious if he brainwashed multiple people at once. However, it didn't say anything about Shinso forcefully activating other people's quirks, nor the effects that it could have on Shinso. Since Todoroki's quirk is powerful, I decided to give some backlash to Shinso when he used it, hence the bleeding. I will be incorporating the unconsciousness in this fic as well, however.**


	13. Exams - Part 1

_20 minutes ago…_

**_Bakugo and Midoriya Team, practical exam, ready, go!_**

One orange, one green. These two colors created a vivid contrast standing next to each other, as the figures started to move inside the exam grounds. Red eyes glared at the horizon, and Bakugo's fists clenched.

Fighting with a piece of trash like you, I won't accept it! Bakugo's teeth gritted.

His gaze turned towards Izumi, who met it with determination. I don't need another half-assed result like the one from the Sports Festival, _Deku_.

During the exam, we'll each get individual scores so we'll see who's better, whether you like it or not.

He walked forwards.

I'll beat you with an irrefutable difference!

His fist clenched harder.

I'll kill you!

—

Even though they were in an exam, the air around them could only be described as…uncomfortable? No, that wasn't the word.

The word was awkward.

Izumi shifted her feet and fiddled with her uniform. She didn't have time to go to the support department that week, so she had to wear her original uniform for the exam. It was perfect when she was Izuku, but now the clothes hung limply around her figure, and her mask fell heavily around her neck. She held a part of it in the air and watched as it dangled loosely.

Everything's too big for me! she thought, annoyed, tugging at the fabric.

Her gaze met the figure in front, and she looked at the ground. Kacchan and I hadn't really talked in the week, unless I count in the times that I argued with him.

A line of sweat ran down her face. But because Kacchan and I are a team, we need to talk properly!

Her fist clenched, and her steps quickened as she caught up to the spiky-haired boy in front of her.

'Kacchan!' Izumi walked alongside the boy. 'For this exam, the teacher is the villain and we're the heroes. We need to keep in mind the villain's combat ability and choose to either fight or run.'

The blond-haired took longer strides, and Izumi's steps broadened to keep up with him. 'In our case, the villain is All Might, so fighting against him is dangerous— I think that it's a really bad idea.'

Bakugo's teeth gritted, and he walked faster.

'K-Kacchan! You need to listen to—'

'Stop following me!'

Izumi's breath caught in her throat, and then she started to walk towards the boy again. 'We need to talk about this, Kacchan! I've been trying to talk to you the entire week. If we go straight, All Might's going to be waiting for us! We need to take a detour—'

'Why should we run away? It'd definitely be better if we beat him up!'

Izumi's fists clenched. 'It's All Might! We should avoid combat no matter what!'

'We'll toy with him until it's almost time, then I'll beat him up!'

Izumi ran towards him. 'You know that won't work, Kacchan!'

Bakugo turned around, his arm flying towards Izumi at a shocking speed.

_Smack_.

Izumi's small body flew backward onto the pavement, her hand covering her face where Bakugo had hit her. Her body thudded with She looked back up at Bakugo's face, which was filled with an indescribable silent rage. His red eyes seemed to budge out of the whites of his eyes.

'Don't say another word, Deku.'

Cold sweat ran up Izumi's back, as she looked up at the piercing red eyes that seemed to pass straight through her.

Bakugo turned backward and continued to walk forwards on the road. Izumi bit her lip hard.

'Kacchan! We need to talk this out properly, or else we definitely won't stand a chance against All Might!' She threw her head up. ''Listen!'

'Shut the fuck up!' he yelled. 'I don't need your power to pass—

'Stop yelling!' she yelled back, head down. 'This is why we can never have a real conversation!' She stood up, face painted with determination.

The red eyes seemed to glow under the shadows of Bakugo's hair. His lip curled. 'This is one thing that I hate about you, Deku.' His veins popped.

'You don't get the chance to fight against All Might every day,' he sneered, 'I'm here to win against All Might. After all, that's what a hero is; winning over the villains in the end.'

He raised his hand and sparks flew from it. 'I don't give a shit about what you think about this, Deku! You want to run away, fine. I can take on All Might myself!'

'Kacchan! This isn't how the exams work!'

'I don't care!' An explosion rang out from Bakugo's hand. 'Won't you learn to shut up, Deku?!' He thrust it towards Izumi's face—

A huge wave of air interrupted them, suddenly appearing out of nowhere and it blew everything away.

'Kah!' The skin on Izumi's face vibrated from the sudden force directed towards her, and her hair became a mess in the air, a compete canvas of messy green. She closed one eye from the wind and covered her face with her arms, her loose clothing flying in the air.

'Tch.' Explosions flew in the air as a certain blond haired boy used them against the wind. Glancing to the right, Izumi saw Bakugo thrusting himself against the wind with his hands, explosions firing off. A tear fell from her eye, and she gritted her teeth to hold against the wind.

'I don't give a damn about destroying the streets.' A voice rang out in the streets, and Izumi looked ahead, hair flying in her face. All Might walked over almost leisurely, in the middle of all the damage he did. A shadow fell on his face, and the tension in the space seemed rose suddenly, with an almost suffocating feeling.

'After all, I am a villain.' He raised his fist into the air. 'Come and defeat me now, heroes!' All Might stared at the two of them with his blue gaze, and the usual feeling of safety and health weren't felt. The space around them seemed to compress, more and more until it was just the 3 of them in the world, looking at each other.

Rustling was heard beside her, and Izumi glanced to the side. Bakugo stood there, fists clenched. Even though his body was clearly shaken and sweaty from the sudden attack made by All Might, his expression was completely determined and focused.

'K-Kacchan! Don't—'

'I told you to shut up, didn't I, Deku!' Explosions rang out from the palms of his hands, propelling him All Might. The hero raised his fist to hit Bakugo, but the boy dodged it with an explosion that pushed him to the right. Lifting his hand, he circled to the back of All Might and blasted him with an explosion.

All Might faltered, but he didn't move from the explosion at all. He grabbed again at Bakugo, who swiftly jumped out of the way. His teeth gritted.

'Kacchan!' Izumi got onto his feet. 'I told you, we need to escape! We can't fight All Might all by ourselves right now!'

'I told you to shut up, Deku!' Bakugo pushed with his sole towards All Might, hand alight with a piercing orange light. Whipping his arm out, All Might grabbed Bakugo's face as he jumped, trapping him.

'Kacchan!'

Glaring at All Might, Bakugo's hands continued to shoot blasts at the hero, petting him with explosion after explosion of enormous orange light and wind. Izumi's eyes widened.

Under normal circumstances, somebody's first reaction to the situation would be to struggle. The green-haired girl stared at the scene in front of her, and her fist clenched. But Kacchan…he's still trying to defeat All Might. She raised her head up, gritting her teeth.

Just how much does he want to win!?

Bakugo's explosions started to become desperate, as they become more and more rapid. All Might swung his other fist backward and thrust it towards Bakugo. The blond boy closed his eyes to protect himself, but—

A flash of green went past both of their eyes. All Might's fist connected with the air instead of Bakugo, and he turned his face abruptly to the right. Izumi's body was gone from the ground and was now a good distance away from All Might. Lightning blazed in the air, and a slight smell of ozone filled the air.

Izumi stood there, panting. With one hand holding on to Bakugo's hand, she dragged him away from All Might. Her legs flashed with green light, and her hair ruffled as she ran.

'W-What? Deku?' Bakugo got over the shock of the situation and skidded in his tracks, causing Izumi to pull at his arm desperately. Bakugo's red eyes glared.

'Stop fucking pulling me away!' He pulled at her hand and grabbed her arm. 'Let me go!'

'No! We need to retreat, to think of a new plan!' Izumi pulled away, grabbing one of Bakugo's grenade handles and grabbing it towards her.

Bakugo opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a streak of shadow that circled behind them. Both of them stared up at All Might with their eyes, filled with shock.

'It isn't smart to argue while you're in the exams, Midoriya and Bakugo! You never know when your enemy might sneak up on you!'

Bakugo jumped backward but was met with punches from that battered his stomach. Izumi couldn't react fast enough, and she could only stare as the punch connected with Bakugo's stomach, taking his breath away.

The blond-haired boy crashed into the iron fences behind him. A line of blood trickled down his mouth, and he grabbed the fence to support him.

'Kacchan!' Izumi screamed desperately at the top of her lungs. She moved towards him, but a tall figure suddenly blocked her way. All Might stood in a heroic pose, but the emotions that Izumi was feeling were nothing but heroic.

'You've grown quite a lot in the 2 weeks, Midoriya!' He cracked his knuckles. 'Let's see how you do against a villain!' As soon as those words came out of his mouth, a fist went straight towards Izumi's face. Concrete cracked, and dust stirred up as All Might hit the ground in front of him. A figure sailed over his head, a smudge of green.

All Might looked back and put his hands to his face, to block against the upcoming punch, but it never came. Red flashed in the air, as shoes directed themselves towards All Might. The hero saw it coming a second too late, could only watch as Izumi delivered a…kick to his side.

Bakugo's eyes looked up and widened. Deku only uses his… He shook his head. _Her_ punches in battle! His fists clenched as he stood up. Did she change her fighting style?

Izumi bit her lip, and she packed even more power into her shoe.

_—_

_'I should focus more on my…speed?' Izumi cocked her head, looking questionably at the two boys in front of her. Todoroki stared at her, while Shinso's focus was on his lollipop._

_'Yes.' Both of them said in unison, then stared at each other with a harsh glare._

_Shinso broke from the gaze. 'From what I've seen from your fight together, your strength has definitely gone down.' He gestured towards her. 'Personally, I think that it might have something to do with the…' He bit his lip._

_'I think that because you changed into a girl, your strength went down.'_

_'Don't say that so bluntly!'_

_Todoroki stared at the purple-haired boy. 'What's the problem?"_

_The tension went up in the room, as the two boys continued to make eye contact at each other. Todoroki's grip on his pants tightened, and Shinso licked his lollipop._

_Oblivious, Izumi stared at them. 'Isn't…—Isn't that a bit stereotypical? The fact that as soon I turned into a girl, my strength goes down?'_

_The two boys stared at each other for another second. Todoroki gestured with his head towards her, and Shinso sighed. _

_'That's part of the reason Izumi, but another thing is…well.' He pointed his lollipop at her, waving it up and down. 'Your entire body build is different now. Before, you were really muscular. But somehow, when the gender change happened on your body, your entire body changed its entire structure. You're learner and skinner now.'_

_'…And?'_

_'You saw during the battle right?' added Todoroki. 'Your punches were weak to the point where i could block them easily. Comparing that to your power before, your strength definitely went down. However, the good thing about being lean is that your speed increases by a lot.'t's pretty much impossible to change your body structure in an entire week, so that's why I—'_

_'We, we believe that you should focus more on your speed.'_

_Todoroki threw a disgusted glare at Shinso, while the purple-haired boy merely looked back at him._

_'But, I won't win against All Might with just my speed! I need some kind of offensive weapon, which aren't my fists!'_

_Putting one hand on her chin, Izumi began to mutter uncontrollably, the area around her seemingly covered in a dark aura. Todoroki looked away. _

_Noticing something, Shinso stared at Todoroki's face, then narrowed his own eyes._

_'Izumi,' he said, breaking her muttering rampage, 'what if..you used your legs?'_

_She looked up._

_'…Legs?'_

_He gestured to his two limbs. 'Legs.'_

_For a moment, it was completely silent. Then, Izumi got over the shock._

_'Oh my gosh, I have legs!' Shinso felt a very irresistible and encouraging urge to facepalm._

_'Why didn't I think of it earlier! Using legs will give my hands a break, and legs can contain more power than the fists themselves, depending on the person! I need to work on it now!'_

_Sighing, Shinso looked up with a smile. 'I think that's what we'll focus on during the week, improving your speed and incorporating legs into your fighting style.'_

_He looked her in the eye. 'Other than that, I have some battle tips to give you as well. I observed these from your battle with Todoroki.'_

_'Try to use all four limbs in battle, it'll give your body a rest.'_

The leg connected cleanly with All Might's side, and he staggered from the punch.

_'Don't give your enemy time to recover, always try to keep the upper hand.'_

Raising her legs, she continued to patter All Might with attacks, so quick and precise that All Might had to use both hands to block.

_Todoroki butted in. 'This doesn't have anything to do with you, but you should keep this in mind, just in case Bakugo does anything reckless.'_

She stomped her foot onto the ground, creating a huge dust cloud that covered the entire area in a blanket of beige.

_'In battle,'_

Izumi jumped, lightning following her.

All Might swatted the cloud away with his hands, his eyes looking out into the road. The green-haired girl disappeared, leaving no trace behind. He turned around to Bakugo, but the figure of the boy on the ground was gone.

_'Never.'_

Over on the rooftops of the buildings, two figures jumped around, side by side. The fierce contrast of the two bold colors clashed, as both lightning and sparks flew in the air from their quirks.

_'Ever lose sight of your goal.'_

Izumi bit her lip. We don't need to win against All Might to win! She looked up, staring at the sky, which had started to rain. Getting to the exit gate will be faster than defeating All Might. so that should be our first Determination surged through her, and she put on another fresh burst of speed. Even if the opponent is All Might, even though Kacchan and I don't get along well.

Rain fell from the sky slowly, making the vivid oranges and greens of the two people stand out, even more. Izumi looked up with her striking green eyes, almost shining in the clouds and rain.

We will pass this exam!


	14. Exams - Part 2

Alleyways aren't one of the greatest places to stay in, believe me.

They can be immensely disgusting, filled with trash and unknown substances. The beigeish-greyish walls are probably never cleaned and are covered with various colors and words. It's a paradise for flies, which are some creatures that I am not particularly fond of. In a storm, the smell would've been unbearable. I've never had any personal experience with alleyways myself, but all the moments where I've passed an alleyway in my city that was so disgusting and horrible that I had to close my eyes and hold my breath are what I believe to be enough evidence to prove this claim.

They are also definitely not on my Top 5 places that I would go to hide if I were being chased by the No.1 hero.

Due to the luck that came from anime and story plotting, however, Izumi and Bakugo ended in one of the cleaner alleyways.

Rain started to pour down, slowly. pattering down the walls, creating a rhythm that our protagonists, unfortunately, did not have time to admire. The musky smell that came from the rain filled the air and covered up the scent of fear and sweat that emitted from the alleyway.

Breathing hard, both of them tried and eventually failed to catch their breath, which was shaky from the run. Adrenaline ran through their veins from the rapid fight minutes ago, and flashbacks of the battle were still imprinted clearly in their heads. Hands twitched, and Izumi gripped her hands on her clothes, creasing the loose fabric. Closing her eyes, she tried to think.

Even with restrictions that they put on All Might, his attack was strong enough to change the weather, thought Izumi. Rubbing her arms, she looked up into the sky, where grey clouds covered up the vibrant blue underneath. Water dripped onto her nose, and she wiped it off. Kacchan's quirk is definitely going to have a disadvantage in this weather.

She glanced at the boy. Speaking of Kacchan…

The blond-haired boy was a mess, breathing hard. Shadows covered his face, obscuring it from Izumi's sight. He leaned on the wall for support, and his arms were tense. Izumi swallowed.

'Kac—'

In a blink of an eye, Bakugo swung his hand towards her face, and an explosion rang out in the air.

_**Boom**_.

Black smoke slowly trailed from the alleyway, the smell of burning filling the air. Izumi opened her eyes and stared at the hand.

His hand was right next to her face, with smoke trailing off it. Behind her, the wall had a huge crater on it from his punch. Izumi's eyes slowly gazed over to the wall, watching as dust fell from it.

Lightning flashed.

'…Kacchan? she started cautiously.

'I won't say this twice, you damned nerd.'

Izumi's eyes whirred back to Bakugo, shocked.

Bakugo's fist slowly clenched against the wall. 'Against somebody with such inhuman speed like All Might, no matter how you run, fighting is inevitable.'

She swallowed. 'But…if we're going to fight All Might, it wouldn't even be called a—'

'Fucking shut up! I'll kill you if you speak again!' Her head jumped back, startled.

His teeth gritted, to the point where Izumi could the faint sound of them scraping. 'If we don't use all of our force… we won't even touch a single hair on All Might.'

'That's why I said we should work together! Kacchan please, I'm begging you! Just for the exam, forget about just winning. We can't use your ideal as a base for our strategy in the exam!'

Bakugo glanced up, his red eyes practically drilling into her. A chilling eeriness instantly ran down Izumi's back as she managed to look back at the boy. His fist was starting to smoke now, as his temper slowly flared up. Whipping his head up, he glared at Izumi.

'Like you have the right to say that.'

Izumi's breath caught in her throat.

'…What do you mean?'

His teeth gritted. 'You wouldn't understand!' He turned his face, and Izumi could finally see his face.

Bakugo for once looked…_desperate_. His face was as always, was filled with rage. Veins on his skin looked like they were about to pop off, and his fists were clenched. His red eyes were shining in the darkness, emphasizing the rage that emitted off him. Yet…

She swallowed. Just why, why? She bit her lip hard. Why would Kacchan think she had no right to say those words? Nervousness or fear, she didn't know, but her hands began trembling from one of them.

'Why! Why are you doing this, Kacchan!' She whipped her hand out in front of her. 'You're saying that I wouldn't understand, but how do you know when you haven't even talked to me about it!' Her green eyes flashed, and water flicked from her clothes.

In an instant, Bakugo grabbed her clothes and slammed her against the wall. An audible slam was heard, and Izumi let out a yelp. Pressing her by her clothes, he held her against the wall, fists shaking.

'Why?'

'…What?'

Bakugo slammed her again against the wall, and Izumi grunted from the second slam of pain. However, he faced the ground instead of her, his entire body shaking. His fist gripped together so hard that the sound was clearly heard, over the sound of the rain.

'Why!'

He swung his other hand at her, but Izumi lifted her leg up, kicking him in the stomach. His red eyes bulged, and he was sent backward into the wall. Getting up, he blasted himself towards her. Izumi slid to the right, barely dodging the attack. Her quirk activated, creating arcs of lightning that ran along the walls, and her eyes glowed.

'Kacchan! Calm down! You're letting your anger get to your head!'

'**Why**?!' Bakugo thrust his hands behind him, blasting himself forwards with his explosions, his fist coming towards her. Izumi quickly lifted up her leg and intercepted the punch. A blast of air came from the two of them, pushing the rain away.

The blond haired boy propelled himself forwards with more explosions, but somehow, Izumi managed to grab his hands in midair, stopping him in his tracks. Her shoes skidded on the pavement, stirring up a rain of water.

'Fucking let go of me!'

Both of them wrestled with each other in the alleyway, rain pouring onto them. It could be described as a dangerous dance, as the two of them pulled and pushed back and forth by each other in the devastating weather, every movement a ploy to overtake the other.

'Please, listen to me Kacchan!'

The boy gritted his teeth, and pulled backward with a new burst of strength, almost escaping from Izumi's grip. Green flashed faster and faster in the air, reflecting off every drop of water that fell from the sky. Interlacing their fingers, she grasped his hands even tighter.

Red eyes glinted, and Bakugo pushed forwards, surprising Izumi.

'I told you!'

Sparks flew out of his palms, and Izumi yelped in pain.

'Let go of me!'

Reds, oranges, yellows; an explosion of colors polluted Izumi's sight, and she quickly closed her eyes on reflex as an explosion was fired towards her at point blank. The force pushed her back a good 10 meters, her eardrums trembling from the force exerted. Pain coursed through her hands, as the blast ripped through her gloves like paper.

The first feeling that Izumi felt was surprisingly, warmth. In a bad way, of course, since the 'warmth' was about 70 degrees Celsius and it was currently burning on her skin.

The heat stung, literally. It was small needles of pain that made it's way up to Izumi's arm, making her back shiver. Her brain practically screamed at her from the pain, as she bit her lip so hard that blood started to trickle down it.

You could compare it to bee stings, or needles at the doctor. Except that bees aren't very strong, and that doctors try to minimize your pain from the needles as much as possible.

Bakugo wasn't a doctor, and he definitely wasn't a bee.

Standing up, Izumi tried to recover from the blast. Stars started to appear in her vision, and she tried to flick them away. She stumbled. Her hands were in extreme agony, and it took all her attention and remaining strength to not yell in pain.

Which, I could relate to.

I would try to not scream in agony as well , if my skin, cells, and tissues were being ripped apart by fiery concentrated blasts caused by my overpowered teammate, who had basically gone insane from who knows what, and was also my childhood friend who literally calls me a piece of trash because I didn't have a quirk. Adding to that, I also have to fight the No.1 hero in the world with an aforementioned berserk teammate to pass an exam to make sure I stay in my dream school or else I could be kicked out the school and never accomplish my dream of becoming a hero.

Oh, and I turned into a girl three weeks ago for the sole reason of plot.

Man, Izumi's life _sucks_.

Panting, her body finally recovered from the shock of being blasted. Wobbling and stumbling, she faced upwards, her hands held out in agony, steaming in the air.

Bakugo faced her, sparks flying out his palms, which were glowing an intimidating orange-yellow. The rain poured down on both of them, but he walked towards, neither him nor the sparks in his hands fazed by it.

'Kac—Kacchan, you need to stop!' Izumi's hands shook.

The boy continued to walk forwards.

'We can't pass the exam like this! I know that you want to win, but in a situation like this, that's impossible!' her voice cracked. 'We can't win using your ideals here!'

Bakugo was standing right in front of her now, his fists clenched and tense. He loomed over her, casting a large shadow onto her. Looking up, his glinting red eyes conveyed an emotion so strong, Izumi finally knew what it was once she was close enough to see it.

Frustration.

That was the strong emotion in Bakugo Katsuki's eyes.

'You don't have the right to say that, Deku.'

Izumi looked up. '…What do you mean by that, Kacchan?'

His foot crunched on the pavement, as he pivoted his foot left and right.

'Don't you remember what happened three weeks ago, Deku?'

Izumi gritted her teeth, 'How is this related to the exams in any way?! Kacc—'

'Do you know why you turned out like this!?' The boy pointed at her with his one hand, shaking.

'I don't know what you're talking about, Kacchan!' Izumi yelled back at him.e

The boy lunged forwards, grabbing Izumi's clothes and held her up. Her neck buckled with pain, and Bakugo held her so close to him, she could hear his breath panting hard, even in the midst of all the rain. The girl's hands grabbed at Bakugo's hand, trying to loosen his grip, but it held there tightly.

'Your own shitty ideal got you into _this_ situation! All that talk about "saving someone with a smile". If you didn't save that child, if you had minded your own damn business, then you wouldn't have ended up like this!'

'What are you—' Izumi's breath lodged in her throat. 'You… saw that?'

He swung his other hand towards the ground. 'The entire incident was broadcasted on television! Everyone saw! I saw!' He gripped her clothes even tighter, and his teeth gritted.

'There were at least 10 pro heroes at the scene! Anyone of them would've seen the child, any one of them would've saved her! So why did _you_ go!?'

'I had to—I—'

'You fucking didn't!' His voice trembled. 'You didn't have to do anything! You couldn't stay out of the pro heroes' way, could you? Once the villain was fighting you, the pros couldn't fight him because they were scared that they might harm you!'

He shook Izumi intensely with his hands. 'This is what _your_ shitty, stupid ideal got you into. Because of that, _you_ turned into a fucking girl. That's the price _you_ paid because of using _your_ ideal in that situation!'

Even though the lack of air she was getting, the green-haired girl managed to open her mouth. 'K-Kah—'

Bakugo leaned closer. 'You got off the hook easy. If that villain was just a bit stronger, you would've died!' The comment echoed in Izumi's eardrums. His other hand twitched, then clenched the air.

Rainwater dripped down Izumi's face, as she went silent.

'Because of that, you turned into a girl. Your body structure changed. Your appearance changed.' Water ran down his face. 'Even your fucking quirk was affected by it! You became so weak that you couldn't even take a _small_ explosion!'

He paused, taking a moment to breathe. 'I don't what to hear the words "ideal" come out of your garbage mouth. If you can't be bothered to change _your_ ideal for a situation as simple as that then you have absolutely no _fucking _right to tell me to change mine because you don't think I can't pass the exam with it.'

Lightning flashed in the distance, and seconds after, thunder boomed in the air. Rain fell down onto the ground, harder than ever, but Izumi hardly noticed it. Biting her lip, she started to quiver.

Bakugo's grip loosened, and Izumi dropped to the ground, her body limp.

'The chance to fight the No.1 hero doesn't come to everyone, and I might only get this one chance in my entire life, _Deku. ' _He held his hand out. 'Do what you want, I'm going to show _my _idol that I have what it takes to be a real hero.'

His shoes clicked on the pavement, as he left the green-haired girl on the pavement, in the pouring rain. 'I'll pass this exam, using my ways, using _my _ideal.' His hand sparked. 'A hero is someone who always wins in the end, that's what I believe, _Deku.' _Back facing Izumi, Bakugo slowly started to walk away.

A flicker of lightning shot to the right of Bakugo, he stopped for a moment, then continued walking. Suddenly, a larger shot of the energy hit a can in front of him, flinging it up in the air.

_Clack._

The soda can fell back to the ground.

The footsteps of the blond-haired boy stopped in his tracks. Another flicker traveled along the floor, then another, then another. The hair on Bakugo's arms stood up straight, as the entire alleyway slowly started to light up from the tendrils of light running down it. Ozone mixed with the petrichor smell in the air and static ran among the puddles on the ground. The alleyway was almost alive with lightning, as the green energy crawled up the walls, making the entire alleyway look like a mad scientist's lab.

It was _shocking_.

Though he wasn't scared, Bakugo's hairs still stood on end from the abundant amount of electrical energy dispersed around him. It didn't take a genius to understand what was happening around him. Gritting his teeth, he turned backward.

Izumi was up on her feet again, the familiar lightning of her quirk surrounding the area. Light refracted off each and every raindrop that fell from the sky, lighting up the entire area. It took most of her remaining strength to even use her quirk since she had overused it so much in the past 10 minutes.

One of her eyes were closed from the strain and pain she felt from her quirk, yet she still looked with determined eyes at the blond-haired boy.

'Would've.'

Bakugo looked back at Izumi, who was still on the ground. 'Is the pain getting to your brain now, _Deku_?'

Her green eyes pierced through Bakugo, sharp and still determined. 'Would've.' she repeated.

The rain poured down as heavy as ever, clinging to her clothes and hair. Izumi hardly noticed it. Her legs were shaking, and she was obviously holding back a lot of pain but managed to stand up. Bakugo's eyes narrowed, and his hands got into a defensive position.

'I'm… not willing to put the lives of others in the word…" would've".'

Her breath was irregular, choppy. The lightning became unstable, and it flickered over the entire alleyway, like green roots over rocks. The water reflected the light, giving the entire alleyway an eerie viridescent color, shining on Bakugo. In the shadows, Izumi's eyes shone, green and unsettling.

'Kacchan…You say that the heroes would've seen the girl, you say that they would've saved her…but what if they didn't?'

The boy faltered. 'Are you stupid? There were at least fucking 10 heroes at the scene! One of them would've definitely seen the—'

'Let me phase this question differently, then.' The girl interrupted him, to the surprise of Bakugo. Her voice was clear, even in the midst of all the rain. Her lightning flickered, and she made eye contact with Bakugo, whose red eyes were still glinting, in the shadows and the rain.

'If I didn't do anything that day when you were trapped by the sludge villain,'

Her eyes made contact with Bakugo's, both red and green shining in the shadows.

'Would you still be here today?'


	15. Exams - Part 3

Silence.

A silence that could only be described with a few blank lines.

Even in the middle of the pouring rain, no sound could be heard. The rain was unimportant, so trivial that they couldn't even hear it anymore.

After all, there was something else that was more important in front of them.

The world seemed to shrink, bit by bit, starting to compress upon itself. First, to the size of the exam grounds, then smaller, and smaller, until only the alleyway itself was the world. You couldn't see beyond the alleyway, for there was nothing apart from the alleyway itself. Tendrils of green light trickled down the walls, flickering between the concrete and its owner.

It's interesting how the human mind could perceive things in different situations. In everyday life, we don't remember the face of every person that walks past, or every peddle we step on. They are just background characters to your own life, insignificant to your story, while you are distracted by something much more in your life. In reverse, you are also just an extra in their lives, someone that they see for a moment, but never remember.

In the eyes of Bakugo Katsuki and Izumi Midoriya, the alleyway was all the world they needed, and everything else became trivial, reducing to just shadow.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the sound of footsteps, or fighting, or breathing that broke the vacuum.

A shaky cough resounded through the alleyway, and the green lightning faltered. Izumi raised her arm up and covered her mouth, but the sound was still heard clearly. Her quirk was taking its toll out on her.

Even with the coughing, Bakugo expressed no concern on his face. In fact, his face was prominent with other emotions, ones that couldn't be read, even for Izumi. Fury? Frustration? Anger?

His fist clenched.

'What are you trying to say, _Deku_?'

The girl slowly stopped coughing, as her body started to recover. 'I'm…asking you a question, Kacchan. Would you still be alive…would you still be here?… if I didn't save you?'

'What are you trying to say?'

'You know what I asked!' Izumi shouted, then coughed again, her body vibrating violently from the force. 'If I didn't hold on to my ideal that day, would you still be standing here today?!'

'That's why I'm fucking asking you, why do you want to know so much?!'

'Because it's the only way!'

'It's not the only way! I fucking told you, if we could defeat All Might, we would—'

'Because it's the only way to make you listen, you idiot!' Her teeth gritted.

Even though she had just said that to his face, Bakugo ignored the comment.

'Listen to what? Listen to fucking what, Deku?' The blond-haired boy whipped his hand in the air. 'Listen to your flawed ideal about heroes that got _you_ hurt time after time?'

'It's not flawed! It's the best way that we can win All Might in this situation!'

'How do you know?' He hit the wall hard. 'How do you fucking know that if we don't even try it?'

'Rushing towards All Might and fighting him…That's practically suicide! We can't beat him in a head-on fight!'

'The same with yours! All Might's definitely waiting for us at the exit gate. You say that we can't beat him in strength, but we can beat him in speed? That doesn't make any fucking sense!'

The lightning surged up in the air, causing Bakugo's skin to prickle with the feeling of static. Izumi was definitely pushing her limits with her quirk now if the release of energy in the air was so abundant that it caused static.

'Ku—Kah!'

Izumi's body rippled with another spurt of coughing. She leaned forwards in an attempt to control the coughing as best she could, mouth directs towards her elbow. The lightning flickered, then finally died down. The current of energy slowly started to fade inside her.

Whether I like it or not, I can't use One for All anymore! Continuing to cough, she opened one eye in pain, as the burning energy in her body started to fade.

If I continue using One for All, I might not have enough strength to go against All Might anymore!

Bakugo's red eyes glared at her, noticing the change in her quirk instantly.

'I really don't know what All Might sees in you, Deku.' His shoes crunched on the pavement, them rubbing against the smalll stones on the ground.

'Why…won't you just listen to what I have to say, Kacchan?'

His teeth gritted. 'Because it's stupid! It's flawed! Why would we escape when we finally have the chance to prove to All Might about how capable we are, about how we've grown?'

Swallowing her pain down, Izumi managed to open both of her eyes. 'Even if we can get more marks that way, if we can prove own selves to him, it won't mean anything if we don't pass! We can't beat All Might in a head on battle, even with our combined power! With speed, however—'

'Speed that we don't have?' Bakugo looked up, eyes full of conflict and rage. 'Even with _your _enhanced speed, we'll never be able to outrun him. Especially since you've just wasted all your power!'

_Drip._

_Drop._

The rain was back in their consciousness.

It continued to fall on their clothes, making their clothes a shade darker than it already was in the dark alleyway, even in the silence. The lightning didn't flash as vigorously as before, as the source of the electrical energy being expelled was slowly getting weaker. Their hair was damp, their clothes were soggy; it was the absolute worst conditions you could get in the worst situation you could imagine.

However, rain couldn't extinguish the _emotions_, the powerful, vigorous, horrifying, monstrous, terrifying, _overwhelming _wave of emotions that continued to drown each person in the alleyway. The emotions itself manifested as a liquid, a substance that reacted to each person in a way, becoming the very thing behind their actions.

Like gasoline, it acted as fuel for the fire, being the very thing that rited it up, daring it to become bigger. It was a catalyst, that allowed it to grow hotter and stronger. Without the strong emotions of spite, pride, _anger_, the flames would've never risen so high.

Like water, it acted as a conductor for the bursts of electricity, being the thing that kept it alive. The electricity would've died a long time ago, overwhelmed by the stronger forces that threatened it. Feelings of fear, compassion, _determination_ kept the current alive and channeled it.

Both were sources of light, yet they were so different.

In the alleyway, no one spoke a word, no one made a sound. And they both knew why.

Gripping their clothes, clenching their teeth; those were all signs towards the thoughts that they harbored about the situation. As the fourth and third smartest students in the class, it wasn't hard for them to analyze the situation at hand.

The fact that what the other person said was unmistakably correct.

If they ran away, All Might would surely catch up to them, even with the restrictions. Izumi may have had a speed boost, but due to the overuse of her quirk, she wouldn't be able to use it to her full capability.

If they fought All Might, they would be overpowered by his strength. They may have Bakugo, but his movements would be heavily restricted in the rain, due to it washing away his sweat and limiting the amount of combustion he could create in the unideal conditions.

They would never pass with either way.

With her fists clenched, Izumi tried to think. What do we do? What _can _we do in this situation to pass? She trembled.

What are we supposed to do?

'I don't care about what you think, Deku.' Bakugo's voice broke her concentration. His body was usually calm, which was honestly less settling than it was when he was angry. To Izumi, it just seemed like he had just given up on the situation.

Would Bakugo really _lose_, just for the sake of not working with her?

'You can fucking stay here for all you want, but I'm going to go to fight All Might.'

Her head shot up. 'Wait—Why? After all that we've talked about here, you're just going to go fight All Might?'

'What else can we fucking do?!' His voice ripped through the air, in an almost painful shout. It quivered in the air, showing all the emotions that Bakugo was desperately trying to hide. Raw, raw frustration at the situation, because he couldn't think of a way to pass it.

'What else can we do in this situation, Deku? I won't waste all my time here talking tactic, I'd rather use it out there against All Might!'

'But that's suicide!'

He punched the wall. 'It's better than fucking wasting it in here!' His fist slowly loosened, and then it drooped down. 'Besides, it's not like there's anything else we could do.'

Izumi's breath caught in her throat.

'You can stay here for all you want, you can try to do whatever you want, but I'm going to go actually do something about the situation.'

Izumi didn't even hear what he said, her mind was completely in a different place, thinking about something else. An idea, a bold brash idea came into her head. An idea that could work in this situation.

Her fist grasped tightly on her clothes.

'I have an idea, Kacchan.' Her voice rang out, loud and clear in the midst of the rain.

Even though her voice was boy didn't even look at her. 'I don't want to hear your stupid ideology about rescuing people, you know that that won't work in this situation.'

'I'm not saying that we escape.'

Bakugo looked back at her, eyes slightly widened. 'So you're agreeing with—'

'I'm not saying that we should fight All Might either.'

The blond-haired boy visibly shook in a small shake of shock and then tensed up again. 'What the heck, Deku?… Are you saying that we should just fucking give up?' His teeth clenched so tightly that even Izumi could hear the scraping.

'That's not what I mean, Kacchan! Of course, I wouldn't give up!' Izumi shook her head from side to side. She took a few steps backward to steady herself, breathing heavily. Lifting her head, her green eyes pierced with a new determination.

'We do both.'

'…What?'

Shock rippled through the blond-haired boy, from his entire body to his eyes, every part of his body was frozen in shock. Red eyes widened, staring at Izumi with compete disbelief.

Bakugo was so shocked that he let out a laugh, not to mock her, or from laughter, but just one given out by shock and disbelief.

'Are..you fucking kidding me?'

His teeth gritted and he started to walk towards her, his steps slowly increasing in strength as he got angrier and angrier. The boy's red eyes had never expressed so much anger.

Izumi didn't move.

Bakugo reached out a hand and grabbed her. This time, he didn't just grab her by her clothes. Grabbing onto her neck, he lifted her up in the air, hanging her there with one hand. Izumi let out a painful yelp at the contact and tried to move his hand away, but it only caused him to grip tighter.

'Do you think this is a fucking joke?!' His voice was filed with so much raw and unfettered anger, spit flying out his mouth. His hand kept shaking her body, from the emotions that coursed through him.

'What do you mean, "both"? Are you trying to be funny?' He shook her violently again in the air, making her gasp for air. 'Stop treating this like it's a joke!'

'I-I'm not—kah!'

'What do you fucking mean by both? How are we supposed to do that?'

Izumi gasped for air. 'It..may sound cliche…and impossible…but…I think that we could do it…'

If you froze time at this very moment, you would receive an image of two people, lighting and fire, red and green. One person who's body was completely made of pride from head to toe, the incarnation of powerful fire, that could destroy everything. One person who was determination and stubbornness is what kept them positive and moving forwards every day, with a type of happiness that could spread to other people, the embodiment of strong lightning.

Gritting his teeth, Bakugo's grip loosened, dropping her on the ground. Izumi coughed and gasped for air, her lungs recovering from the lack of oxygen in her body. Her body trembled violently, crimson liquid coming our of her.

'Stop coughing, and fucking explain to me what your plan is!'

Opening her eyes again, Izumi managed to look up at the boy in front of her, fists gripped tightly. Bakugo's face…it was so frustrated. He himself was torn between letting Izumi help him, or winning and passing the exams. His entire mentality was conflicted.

'Listen…Kacchan.' Her elbow went in front of her mouth again, as another burst of coughs racked her body.

'What I mean by both…is that during the exams, they expect us to choose one, escape or fighting, right?' With one hand holding onto the ground, she wiped off the blood with her other hand. 'We choose both.'

'Like I said before, how are we ever going to do that?'

Izumi bit her lip. 'We don't have to focus on just one, battle or escape. When we meet All Might, we keep both of the methods in mind.'

'What do you—'

'Depending on the situation, we choose if we want to escape or fight All Might, that's the method that we'll choose.'

He punched the wall. 'That doesn't answer the question, Deku! How are we ever going to do that?'

A dart of green went by his eye, and suddenly, Izumi was in front of him.

In a flash, Izumi was up and grabbed Bakugo's hand with her hands. The sudden force on his hands caused Bakugo to stumble back onto the ground, Izumi on top of him.

'Deku! What the—'

'Listen to me, Kacchan!'

Their hands wrestled in the air, a dance of green and orange as both of their quirks activated simultaneously. Lightning intersected with fire, causing yellow light to dart on the ground. Bakugo was activated his quirk against his hands, in an attempt to make Izumi let go of him.

She didn't let go.

His eyes widening, Bakugo watched as his quirk started to burn Izumi's skin, burns upon burns, the sparks creating the sickening perfect star shapes on her hands. The smell of burning flesh filled the space. It must hurt, it had to _hurt. _And on top of that, she had her quirk activated again.

How much pain was she withstanding?

'Listen to me, Kacchan!' Tears were flowing down her face now, both from the pain and the emotion.

'We're only in this situation because of you, if you had listened to me before, we wouldn't have to go through all this work!' Even though Bakugo's hands were red-hot, she gripped them harder.

'The only reason why the others don't use this tactic is because it takes time, and teamwork with the other person.' The lightning grew more rapid, starting to make Bakugo's hair stand on point from static. 'They can't do it, but we can. We've been together since kindergarten, we both know each other's move sets and thought processes, only we can do this!'

Rain mixed with the water on her face, until you couldn't tell which was which. 'All Might wouldn't expect it, and it would be harder for them to read if we were to do both.'

Her joints were starting to creak now, as her emotions slowly made her lose control over the percentage of One for All she put into her body. From a measly 5%, it started to go up, bit by bit, until it looked like her entire body was glowing with a green light.

'I don't know if you'll agree to this, but this is the best plan that we can come up with that allows both of our ideals together, both winning and escaping.' Her eyes looked up at Bakugo, making his eyes widen with shock.

Maybe it was her overwhelming quirk, maybe it was the filter of saltwater, Izumi's eyes were literally burning with green light, overwhelming, flowing over the sides of her eyelids. Her face was red, tired, sore from crying, but that didn't make her look any less determined.

With her tiny throat, her voice ripped through the air, like a sharp sword.

'So swallow up your stupid pride and work with me, Bakugo!'


	16. Exams - Final

The wind blew softly through the makeshift city of concrete and metal, making no noise against the grey and white canvas of the exam grounds. Rain fell as heavy as ever, from the tremendous amount of force the No.1 hero released into the sky mere minutes ago.

Storm clouds dabbed the sky with the different shades of grey, white and black, making the sky look like an old photo, with no color in sight.

No green flashes of lightning were prickling the skin, no vibrant explosions rippled the air with heat.

After just ten more minutes, the final exams for the Yuuei Hero Course would end, and the fate of the two would-be heroes would be decided, whether to pass or to fail.

At the very front of the gates, red, blue and yellow stood out against the dark shades like paint against a wall. Vibrant and vivid, it was the only spot of color in the area.

Standing there, looking over the horizon, he thought to himself.

Where could the two of them be?

—

All Might's face was still frozen in his usual smile, as he stared over at the cloudy horizon of the exam grounds. His cape fluttered in the rain and wind, as he stood in a heroic position.

His smile began to waver.

Standing out in the wind and rain for 10 long minutes doing absolutely nothing was honestly harder on him than fighting, as he had to stay in a heroic position while smiling the entire time. Slowly, he could feel the time limit for his muscular form fade out of him.

_Shit_.

Sweat dripped down his face.

What were the two of them doing in the ten minutes? That's an incredible amount of time wasted, especially in an exam like this, where the results could potentially mean the end of your entire school life at Yuuei. He looked onto the concrete roads, as it became so deafeningly quiet that it seemed like one of those cartoon dust bunnies seem to roll by.

He lifted his head in the air and began to laugh, the sound loud and echoing off the walls of the streets.

'There's nothing to worry about! They're probably using the time to think about their tactics and strategies to pass the exam, and are on their way to the exit gates right this instant! There's definitely absolutely nothing to worry about!'

He kept his head up and continued to laugh loudly, standing in front of the exit gates.

More sweat dripped down the side of his face.

Seriously, where were the two of them?

The sound of water splashing interrupted his train of thought, and he lowered his head to look forward onto the road. The rain was falling harder than ever, and in the midst of all the rain, a shadow appeared. All Might's grin grew wider.

'Have you finally come, heroes?' He lifted his fist up and flexed his arm. 'I've been waiting for you for a long time!'

Lifting his head up, he started to laugh again, loud and clear, even against the sound of all the rain. The shadow, even after witnessing that, continued to move forward.

How have they decided to pass the exam? To escape and call for help? Or to fight me? All Might started to stretch his arms in preparation. How would they—

The shadows on his eyes widened as the figure appeared out of the mist.

Figure. Singular.

Izumi walked alone out of the storm of wind and mist, her body slightly limping as she slowly walked over. Her figure leaned over on one side, revealing the pattern of burns all over her suit, even blackening the fireproof material, adorning the green material with star-shaped marks.

Her gaze lifted from the ground to the pro hero in front of her, one eye slightly squinted with pain. Hair plastered to her face from the constant rain and wind, fluttering in the wind.

Slight disbelief went through All Might as he watched Izumi approach him. He'd completely neglected the possibility that Bakugo wouldn't be convinced by Izumi. His smile tightened. I should've given them some advice over the week about working together, but I was so certain that young Midoriya would be able to convince young Bakugo…

He sighed. I can't interfere with the choices that they make for themselves as heroes, if they cannot work together in this exam, then they'll have to find a way to pass it on their own.

Observing the approaching hero, he noticed that the usual green lightning wasn't prickling the air. Is she not going to use her quirk here? Was her body hurt by Bakugo to that point?

The sound of firecrackers came from behind him.

All Might darted quickly to the right, but even then, he barely dodged the large explosion from behind him. The dark figure of Bakugo appeared from the wind and mist, hands outreached towards the No.1 hero.

'Tch!' A second explosion swiftly followed the first, propelling the boy towards All Might. More blasts of fire were delivered towards the hero, as Bakugo used the force from his explosions to maneuver around the area while throwing punches on the parts that weren't protected by All Might's hands.

All Might instantly retaliated, throwing his arm at the boy. Quick as the wind, Bakugo ducked, then grabbed onto the pro hero's arm. With a flick of his wrist, he brought out the special handcuffs. Eyes widening, All Might swung his arm to the side, the force swinging Bakugo off his arm and onto the buildings, cracking the wall.

Turning around, All Might jumped back, dodging the kick directed towards him by Izumi. The girl gritted her teeth, then kicked again with her right leg, forcing All Might to move backward as he dodged all of her kicks. Glancing behind him, the hero saw Bakugo get up onto his feet, handcuffs in hand.

Hands bursting with light, the boy pushed off the wall towards All Might, fire blazing behind him. Reacting quickly to the situation, the pro hero jumped upwards into the air, as Bakugo blasted straight underneath him, and into Izumi. Both of their eyes widened, mere milliseconds before the collision. The blond-haired boy crashed straight onto the girl, pushing them both onto the ground.

All Might stood in front of them, slightly panting from the sudden surprise attack launched onto him seconds ago. Even though I'd expected those two to be a dangerous force to be reckoned with when they worked together, he thought as he wiped the sweat off his face, I didn't expect them to be this good.

Using young Midoriya as bait, to lure my attention towards her. While that was happening, young Bakugo circled around to my back, using the wind and rain as a cover for his footsteps. He even considered the fact that the rain and wind wouldn't fully cover his explosions if he used them to move around, so he saved them for the last second for the sake of stealth.

They're using the rain and wind, factors that I brought into this battle to hinder them, to their own advantage.

All Might's smile grew wider.

Those two…

'Why didn't you get out of the way, Deku?'

'You were going too fast for me to react!'

'Fuck…If I'm going to be working with you, at least try your best!' His voice shook.

'I know, I know, I—Oww! Just get off me first, Kacchan!'

The duo managed to separate themselves from each other and got up on their feet, Izumi panting hard from the short encounter they just had.

We knew that the first attack probably wouldn't be the last, but it's still astounding that All Might was able to react so quickly to Kacchan, last second. Her fists clenched. This isn't going to be an easy battle.

All Might started to walk towards them, his feet crunching the stones on the pavement. His knuckles cracked, and his fists clenched in preparation.

Bakugo made the first move, by blasting himself off the ground towards the hero, legs outstretched. All Might prepared to block the leg, but the blond-haired boy swiftly switched to his other leg, bringing his knee to the hero's side. The blow struck, and Bakugo continued to repeatedly slam his knees onto All Might, pushing the hero back.

Pulling back, the blond-haired boy panted, his hands beginning to glow with orange light. With both of his hands stretched back, they began to smoke with the smell of caramel, sparks flying out of them. Before he could do anything, All Might grabbed Bakugo's face and lifted him up into the air, where he dangled.

Red eyes widened with surprise, only for a split second before Bakugo reacted again.

Surprisingly, Bakugo didn't attack All Might but instead struggled for release instead. Normally, he would've continued to attack me, even when his face was being grabbed, yet…

Wind and rain ruffled his hair relentlessly,

'So fucking stupid…I want to fight so fucking badly…but I can't…' Bakugo continued to pound the hero's arm with explosions, all the while struggling to get out of the pro hero's grip. Red eyes blazed with anger. His right hand desperately tried to hook the handcuff onto All Might's hand, but the hero held it tightly with his other hand, preventing him from doing so.

The blond-haired boy's teeth were biting onto the pro hero's hands at this point, his veins almost popping out of his head. If his eyes bulged anymore, the red pupils would've popped straight out of the sockets.

'Hurry up…if I'm sacrificing so much of my pride to do this…go, stupid Deku!'

All Might instantly glanced to where the girl—

Izumi was gone.

Whipping his head behind him, All Might saw the streaks of green lightning fade in the air, as the figure of Izumi was seen as she ran full speed towards the exit gate. The rain felt like it was slashing on her skin. With every step she took with her left leg, her entire body shook with minor pain. The power of One for All in her body was like lightning, stinging her insides.

Her speed was nothing compared to All Might's, nor was it the fastest she could go. I shouldn't have pushed my body that far when I was convincing Kacchan to work together. She gritted her teeth. Even with all the training that Shinso and Todoroki put her through, it wasn't enough for her to withstand the power of One for All for that long of a time.

I can make it…just a bit longer, her lip started to bleed from the amount of pressure she was putting on it, I just need to hold on for a few more seconds!

Pain shot through her entire body, racking her body with ripple and ripple and ripple of constant and undeniable pain.

'Move, Deku!'

With terror-stricken eyes, Izumi glanced back, to see the body of Bakugo being hurled full speed at her. His arms crackled, small explosions coming one after another from his hands, trying to slow himself down. They were strong at first but slowly started to die down, like fire without fuel.

It wasn't enough.

Training saved the two of them from collision, as Izumi managed to brake herself with her shoes on the dirt, skidding up a storm of dust, while Bakugo crashed onto the ground ahead of her, the two of them missing by only a few centimeters. The blond-haired boy shakily sat up, and coughed violently, staining crimson on the pavement.

'Kacchan!'

'Now's not the time to be worrying about your teammates, young Midoriya!'

Izumi turned around to see the flying shadow of All Might coming towards her, his vivid colors popping out of the shades of the rain. Fixing her arms together, she managed to block the first punch he threw at her. In less than a second, All Might circled around to her side, where a second punch sent her flying into one of the buildings.

'Deleware…**SMASH**!'

A gasp came out of Izumi, as the impact cracked the wall, creating a huge crater on the wall from the girl being thrown at it.

Her eyes were wide open.

White liquid came out of her mouth, as the wall nearly crumbled from the amount of force All Might punched her with. Sliding limp against the ground, her body rippled, and she quickly turned to the side as her body forcefully excreted the liquid out of it. She gasped for air.

Debris fell from the wall, landing in small piles around Izumi, with some small pieces, unfortunately, landing on her body.

With her eyes half open, she could see the outline of Bakugo, lying over on the pavement with pain. More rain pattered on top of him, as his body slowly tried to get up. Izumi glanced at his hands, which were drenched in rainwater.

Kacchan…he didn't have enough power in his explosions to change the direction of where he was going. She spat more liquid out. Although…I do think that All Might's power is the main factor, but…

What Kacchan said really was true… The rain really does hinder his quirk.

_'What do you mean, you can't use a huge explosion?'_

_The two of them sat across from each other, panting and staring at the other._

_Bakugo looked angry, much more than usual. The anger on his face was directed only towards Izumi, and he looked like a feral cat, ready to fight anyone that even got within a 5-meter radius of him._

_Izumi gulped._

_Surprisingly, Bakugo closed his eyes and seemed to grasp a hold of his emotions. The boy's teeth gritted, grinding against each other, and his forehead was burrowed. Finally, he raised his hand and released a handful of sparks, lighting up the small area of the alleyway._

_'You know how my quirk works right, Deku?'_

_The green-haired girl looked surprised. 'Y-Yeah, of course, I do!' She gestured to Bakugo's hand, still spitting out light. 'Your hands generate a nitroglycerin-type liquid which you then ignite to create explosions.' _

_The blond-haired boy closed his hand, extinguishing the sparks. 'The nitroglycerin_ _that I create is much more oily than normal nitroglycerin. When my hands get wet. the oil and the water mix. 'The nitroglycerin is lighter than water, it floats on top of it, making it impossible for me to ignite the nitroglycerin that's been mixed with water.' His teeth gritted. 'I have to be careful to not get my hands wet.'_

'I am very impressed with you two.' All Might's voice shattered through her flashback. Izumi's eyes fluttered, then looked up at the pro hero, who'd moved in front of the duo.

'Normally when people try passing these exams, they only choose to go one way, either to escape or to fight, because it's easier to coordinate and work with your teammate when you only focus on one option.' All Might grinned. 'But you two decided to go both ways, keeping both options open as you fight with me, changing tactics based on the situation!'

Izumi's legs shuddered, as she tried to move her legs from underneath the stray pieces of debris. Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw Bakugo weakly raise one of his grenade gauntlets, aiming it towards All Might. Gritting his teeth, he slowly lifted up his left hand to ignite the item in his hand.

In the blink of an eye, All Might was right in front of Bakugo. Grabbing the grenade, he crushed it with his one hand, reducing the item to bits and pieces of rubbish. The nitroglycerin inside splattered all over the two of them, mixing with the rainwater that fell on them.

'Deku!'

Bakugo threw the handcuffs and the remaining grenade gauntlet at Izumi, who leaped at the items. Landing face first in the mud, her fingers managed to grasp both objects, holding them tightly.

All Might came on the offensive instantly, sprinting towards her. Jumping away, Izumi dodged the punch, as he crushed the ground where she was standing a split second ago. A blink of the eye was all the time it took for the adrenaline to stream back into her body.

Izumi dodged to the right, then retaliated with a punch of her own, as quick and sharp as All Might's.

The battle was almost unreadable by the human eye, as the two users of One for All nearly moved too quickly for the naked eye to follow. Punches thrown at each other, dodges in the muddy water was all an attempt to defeat the other side.

It was quite plainly obvious, however, on who had the upper hand in the situation.

The rain whirred past Izumi's eyeballs, making her squint her eyes. Stepping back, she panted, wincing for merely milliseconds before retreating again, from another attack.

My body…I feel like fainting at any second now…

Her chest was so much pain as if somebody was driving over it over again with a monster truck.

Blinking the rain out of her eyes, Izumi grabbed the grenade gauntlet with her hands and raised it towards All Might.

The hero instantly rushed towards her.

Time seemed to slow down completely, every single second of the battle feeling like a minute of her life. The footsteps of the pro hero rushed towards her in slow motion, the raindrops seemed to float in midair.

Izumi's breath caught in her throat.

He's going to break the gauntlet. She gulped. He'll break our last winning factor into pieces, and then he'll fight me.

Can I really say that I'll be the victor in that battle?

She looked up, her eyes for the first time that battle, filled with pain. Raw, unfettered pain, the pain from the fierce battle, the pain from One for All burning inside her body, the physical, emotional pain that she felt. The pain that she hadn't dared to show before this point.

Tears ran down the sides of her face, from the wind blowing without mercy at her.

Her right hand slowly started to glow with warm light, streaks of red, orange and maroon, covering the entirety of the arm in pure power. Lifting it up, she pointed towards the pro hero.

'Detroit…'

All Might's eyes widened, and he covered his face with his arms, shielding himself. The arm thrust back even further, accumulating not only the power of One for All but all of the pain, all of the emotions that Izumi Midoriya was feeling at that very moment.

'**SMASH**!'

Her arm thrust straight above the ground, over the debris, past All Might, right through the grenade gauntlet, and into the air, where it released all the power that was built up by the one girl.

Time froze for a moment, as the figures of Izumi and All Might stood petrified in the road, both pairs of eyes locked onto Izumi's fist, now purple and steaming from the energy released.

The sky exploded. At least, that's what it felt like.

A sonic boom spread out from her fist, popping her ears.

Air rushed upwards, sourcing from Izumi's outstretched fist, into the far sky. Precipitation was completely destroyed by the streak of air, the rain literally being repelled by the air. Air currents, clouds, weather were all destroyed by the magnitude of force sent into them. It rewrote the air patterns, forcing the air to collectively circle around the exam grounds, like a miniature tornado.

The wind blew around them so hard, that Izumi's wet hair was instantly blow-dried to normal, and her clothes were slowly becoming dryer, as the wind was so strong that it literally blew the water away.

It was the same move she pulled against Bakugo during the first battle practice.

The wind pulled the lightning with it, the entire pillar of air glowing almost green from energy coursing up and down it, in currents and streaks of lightning. Air made its way inside the tornado as well, caressing the hair of the two people inside it, rain and nitroglycerin swirling around.

Izumi felt the last of her power course out of her, as all the power was released into the air around her. The handcuffs were slipping out of her hands, and she felt like she could faint at any moment.

I can't just give up here…

Her arm was almost numb with the pain now, horrible excruciating pain that coursed from her arm to her entire body.

I can't win this fight, I won't be able to.

Her eyes streaked with the green energy that was swirling in the air around her as well, determined and hopeful.

_But he can._

Her head swung downwards. 'Kacchan, now!' She screamed out to the empty abyss of air in front of her, her voice going so high that it cracked.

The smell of burning sugar drifted in the air.

Whipping his head up, All Might looked up at the swirling mess of greens and greys. Nothing appeared at first, but like the photos you get after you take a polaroid, a palette of colors started to appear within the depressing sky.

Warm oranges and reds lit up the top of the pillar, showering the two people down below with yellow light. Sparks fell from the air, from outstretched hands that pointed upwards. Bakugo was in the air, straight above both All Might and Izumi. A firestorm collected in his hands, swirling with heat and power in the air, lighting up the oxygen in the pillar.

If the rain wasn't already blown away by the air before, it would've definitely evaporated in the air now, from the blasts of hot air the firestorm was sending off into the pillar. The heat prickled on their skin, as the liquid on them started to sizzle.

All Might's eyes widened even further, as he realized the bold brazen plan the girl had put into action.

_'The nitroglycerin is lighter than water, it floats on top of it, making it impossible for me to ignite the nitroglycerin that's been mixed with water.'_

The green eyes of Izumi Midoriya were filled with the same, unnatural determination, standing out, shining in the ocean of reds and oranges.

Why don't we just ignite it from above then?

The fire grew larger and larger in the sky, feeding on the oxygen surrounding it.

By creating a pillar of air, the oxygen would start to compress inside the pillar itself, creating an atmosphere with high oxygen levels. Both the air and the heat contributed to the weather, driving the precipitation that would hinder the explosion. Destroying the gauntlet wasn't an accident, it was to release the nitroglycerin inside on All Might.

Izumi didn't make the pillar of air by accident, nor was destroying the grenade gauntlet. Everything that she'd done to this very point was to create the ideal conditions for combustion to occur. She trusted in Bakugo, trusted that he'd be able to see what she was going for and work with her.

Oxygen caught on fire, spreading the flame to other atoms, lighting the entire column of air up in harsh flames. In only a few seconds, both All Might and Izumi were surrounded by a dome of beating flames, as all of the oxygen was slowly being consumed for the need of combustion.

The sky lit up golden.

Bakugo's eyes had tears running out of them, as the force of the air from the pillar went upwards towards his face, making it almost impossible to even open his eyes. Swinging his arms, his hands swung downwards, the firestorm following it.

'**DIE**!'

Rushing down, the fire raced down the sides of the pillar, glowing with golden light, coming into contact with the nitroglycerin—

The sky exploded. Literally this time.

Nitroglycerin, mixed with a shit ton of oxygen and fire, exploded.

A sound so loud, it made Izumi deaf to the sounds around her.

Orange and green, intertwining.

The sky fell.

A palette of swirling warm colors, so hot that she could still see the heat, even when closing her eyes.

It was the last thing she saw before-

Izumi Midoriya blacked out.

**Hello.**

**This is the author speaking.**

**...**

**This really isn't important, but...**

**We're completely finished with the first arc!**

**(＾▽＾)**

**I'm expecting this story to have about 6 arcs in total, the first one being about the shortest. I have a story plan set out and probably will not be abandoning this fanfic unless I have to, such as if I just don't have time or if I die.**

**If this fanfic does get abandoned, let's not hope for the latter.**

**I do like to keep updates regularly and to also maintain the quality of my works as well, so this fanfic will probably update about once every week or fortnight.**

**This fic will also always update on Fridays.**

**(Updates may go down to once every three weeks once I'm in school, however)**

**I didn't expect this fanfiction to receive any attention at all, and this really was just for leisure, but seeing that there are a ton of people enjoying my work makes me really happy!**

**Thank you, everyone! (`･ω･´)**


	17. After Exams

'You know Bakugo, I fully expected this to happen when they announced that you and Izumi would be in a team together, but still…'

The purple-haired boy's eyebrow twitched.

'What the actual fuck?'

—

Other than the constant beeping of the machines, and the soft growling that came from Bakugo, the room was actually quite quiet.

The blond-haired boy on the hospital bed stared daggers at Shinso, who in return, replied with a calm friendly, and a very annoyed expression. Scrunching up his lips, his face whipped to the side, eyes locked on the curtains stubbornly.

'Don't worry, I won't use my quirk on you. I've been warned by Aizawa-sensei to not scare your entire class with it anymore after what happened on the first day.'

'Who did you say was fucking scared?' Bakugo's anger-filled eyes turned back to Shinso, his forehead scrunched with anger. Shinso scoffed, and Bakugo's fists clenched on the blanket. 'Why are _you _here anyway? Shouldn't you be acting all emo in the back of the practice grounds, throwing death glares at everyone trying to even glance at you?'

'Well, isn't it just _wonderful_ to know what Class 1-A's impressions of me are.' Shinso's eyebrow twitched faster. Looking to the right, he glanced at the blue curtains separating them from the other side of the room. 'Izumi has shown more hospitality to me than most of Class 1-A combined, the least I could do to repay her was to visit her.'

'You're about five hours early, raccoon. Deku's completely out cold.'

'Compliments of who, I wonder?' Shinso's cold gaze fell on the blond-haired boy. 'At least she gave you a few broken bones in return.'

Bakugo's teeth gritted. 'For your _fucking_ information, it's internal bleeding, broken ribs and a dislocated arm.' His fingers slowly clenched on the blanket. 'Plus, All Might did most of the damage to both of us.' he added.

'Huh. I never knew that All Might had the power to create massive explosions that could potentially knock people out for five hours.'

The blond-haired boy's mouth opened to retaliate, then suddenly stopped. Closing his mouth, his eyes glanced over Shinso.

'…What happened to your fucking face?'

The purple-haired boy flinched. '…Oh, is it that obvious?' Shinso laughed halfheartedly. 'I got injured when I was training with Izumi.'

Bakugo's eyes darted. 'Not just that, what happened to your neck? Did you get into a fight with a fucking blueberry? It's purple and—

'You know what, Bakugo? I came here for Izumi, so I'll just visit here and leave before…' His gaze turned dark, and he turned towards the blond-haired boy. 'I didn't come here to speak with an oversized ego-inflated arrogant durian.'

'**What did you just call me, you**—'

The blue curtains suddenly opened halfway, revealing a young woman dressed completely from head to toe in nurse's clothing. The two boys looked to the right and flinched.

'Excuse me, I don't know if the two of you have noticed this yet,' the woman's aura prickled on their skin. 'But we have patients in the other rooms that are currently being treated with.' Her head lifted up, revealing a pair of brown, beautiful, and extremely terror-inducing eyes. 'I am **not** in a good mood and I would hate if I had to kick my own patients out of the medical room.' Her eyes whirred around to Shinso, who gulped in return. 'This goes the same for visitors.'

'Where's Recovery Girl?' Shinso asked cautiously. 'Isn't she supposed to be in charge of all medical issues at Yuuei?'

'Recovery Girl is currently working at the exam grounds to care for wounds.''That's where you two were supposed to be healed as well, except that you two obviously have more… life-threatening injuries.' She turned her glare towards Bakugo, who looked away in return. 'Thanks to you, I assume?'

Bakugo scoffed.

'I'm sorry, Ms…' Shinso's eyes landed on her name tag. 'Ms. Doya. I…' Shinso glanced over at Bakugo, and his hands clenched. '—We'll be sure to keep our voices down.'

'Where's All Might?'

The gazes of the two people were turned towards Bakugo, whose's red eyes were staring right at Doya.

'Where's All Might?' He repeated. 'Shouldn't he be receiving treatment for his wounds as well?'

The intense aura that Doya was releasing was instantly reeled back, and she laughed nervously.

'Tosh—I mean, All Might is…' She glanced back, to the back of the room.

The medical room at Yuuei was quite spacious, despite it being just a school. The room was separated into 3 parts by the curtains, leaving enough room in each section for four people to stand next to each other comfortably. Sunlight streamed through the window at the very far side of the room, illuminating the body of All Might, feeble and skeleton-like after the fight, lying on one of the hospital beds, completely covered from head to toe in bandages. Raising his hands to his mouth, he quickly gestured to Doya to stay quiet. The nurse turned her head back, meeting the gazes of the two boys in front of her.

'All Might—Well, you know, um—' Doya forcefully brought the corners of her lips up in a nervous smile, sweat running down her face.

In the back of the room, All Might let a snicker escape, earning him a quick death glare shot by Doya.

Yiyashi Doya was impeccable at many things, but acting wasn't one of them.

'He's…um—' Her eyes darted side to side, trying to think of a way to get out of the awkward situation. 'I'm not certain—because I'm not the person-nurse assigned to him, so I-I don't know where he'll be receiving treatment.'

Bakugo's eyes narrowed. 'All Might was hurt pretty badly in the explosion, why would he be taking treatment at somewhere far away if the Yuuei Medical Room was right here?'

More sweat dripped down the side of Doya's face. 'Well…'

The sudden knocking on the door saved her.

Rattling on the doorknob grabbed everyone's attention, turning their heads towards it. With a turn and a click, the door started to open.

'Excuse me, is this the room where Izumi—' The person walking in stopped halfway, as his eyes met the people inside. Looking to the right, his eyes met Shinso's.

'What are you doing here, Half and Half?' Bakugo threw the remark over to Todoroki, who disregarded it.

The purple-haired boy instantly stood up.

'Well, it's been a _lovely_ time talking to you two. It looks like I don't have time to meet Izumi after she's rested, so I'll be on my way now.' His eyes glared at the intruder. 'I didn't know that the announcement speakers in this room were broken.'

Todoroki glared back. 'What are you doing here?'

'What does it look like I'm doing?'

'I thought I told you to stay away from her.'

'_I_ thought I said no.'

**'I'm not here to argue with you, I—'**

**'**You're practically asking for it.'

A cough came from behind Todoroki, making him look backward. His stare turned startled, and he stumbled forwards, the person behind him pushing open the door completely.

Behind the red and white-haired boy was Aizawa, still wearing his hero costume from the practical exam. With everyone's gaze on him, he walked in, sidestepping Todoroki, Nodding at Doya, and disregarding Bakugo on the hospital bed, he caught the gaze of the purple-haired boy. Glancing at the two of them, he sensed the level of tension in the room.

Sighing, he walked over to Shinso, looking down at the young boy.

Raising his hand, he flicked the purple-haired boy on the forehead.

'Ow! What the—' Shinso stopped halfway through his sentence, as the red glowing eyes of the teacher shoved whatever words he had to say down his throat.

'I thought that I told you to stop threatening your classmates.' said Aizawa, jaw clenching.

'So you believe everything the Canadian flag tells you?' Shinso turned his head to glare at Todoroki.

'For your information, sensei,' started Todoroki, breaking his gaze with the purple-haired boy, 'I was just preventing Shinso's quirk from starting another outbreak. Whether he likes it, his quirk has been the cause of almost all conflict in the class this past week.'

'So you idiots fought each other?' asked Bakugo. 'Is that why the raccoon's neck looks like it's been attacked by a fucking blueberry?'

They didn't reply.

The teacher turned his head to face Doya. 'I apologize for the trouble that my students have brought here today, it must've caused you quite a lot of trouble.'

'You…could say that.' Doya laughed nervously, then leaned in to whisper in his ear. 'Though I was quite surprised that most of the trouble didn't come from him…' Her eyes drifted over to Bakugo, who scoffed and looked away.

Aizawa sighed. 'They're going to have to stay here a bit longer, I'm afraid.'

'What do you mean?' cut in Shinso. 'I was just about to leave the room,' he gestured to both Todoroki and Bakugo. 'I don't think any of us want to be inside a 5-meter radius of each other.'

'As annoying as it is, I'll have to agree with Hitoshi on this.' added Todoroki.

Bakugo glanced at the teacher. 'The feeling's mutual.'

Aizawa glanced over at Doya. 'Ms. Yiyashi, could you please show them…Midoriya's condition?'

Doya's eyes widened in surprise, and her face swiftly switched from nervous to a professional strictness. 'Aizawa, you know I'm not authorized to show anybody my patient's condition, nor is her body in the condition for four people to be visiting her, even if you're close with her.' She glared at him. 'The only reason that I'm letting you and your students stay in here is that you asked to, but to see the condition of her body—'

'It's not me that asked to see her condition, I'm on orders from the police force.' Aizawa. Doya flinched. 'The investigation and interrogation isn't going very well, and the leads may be running cold, so they need her to—'

'What do they need her to do?' asked Todoroki. 'What does this have to do with us, anyway?'

The teacher looked at him, then looked at the other students, all looking back at him, perplexed.

Doya's eyes froze. One of her hands gripped Aizawa's arm tightly, and she looked up at him, her face pale. 'Aizawa…you don't mean…'

'He asked for her, Doya. She's the only remaining factor that can help us find—'

'**No.'**

The three students glanced nervously at her.

'No, no, no, no, **no**!' She thrust her hand out. 'I don't care if she's the last factor, or if the only lead that we have, you can't just send a _child _into there.' She gripped harder. 'This is the third time she's been in the emergency room in these two months, I don't know what kind of mental stress she's going to have when she sees him, and it could potentially bring back memories from the incident itself!'

'Doya, calm down!'

'Do you know how much her mother is going to worry again?!' She stumbled forwards, Aizawa catching her arm.

Todoroki grabbed the teacher's gaze. 'Sensei, what's the police asking Izumi to do that's making Ms. Doya react this intensely? At least tell us why we have to stay here!'

Aizawa put his hand on Doya's shoulder. 'Doya…just show them first.'

Shaking, Doya looked up at the teacher, then at the other students, all looking back at her. With one hand, she managed to grab the curtains on her right, and swung them forwards, revealing the body on the bed.

Everyone in the room visibly flinched, with even Bakugo closing his eyes tightly.

Izumi looked…dead.

Patterns of burns covered almost everywhere visible on her skin, creating star-shaped scars that blended in with the scars that were already there. Her skin was pink, feverish with heat. Patches of her skin were completely covered in soot, staining it a coal-black. A clean turquoise-colored hospital gown covered the rest of her body, creating a clear contrast between her injuries. Her right hand was wrapped in a cast, sitting neatly over her stomach.

On the side, a heart monitor announced her irregular heartbeat in a series of beeps. In fact, if there wasn't a heart monitor on the side, she could've very well been mistaken as a corpse.

Almost simultaneously, Todoroki and Shinso slowly turned their heads towards Bakugo.

Todoroki looked like he was about to kill someone. 'You know Bakugo, I was just expecting her to have a few broken bones and scars. But this…is much _much_ beyond my expectations, even for you.'

'Congratulations you blond-haired prick,' Shinso cracked his knuckles. 'You should be proud that the first thing that Todoroki and I work together on is **beating your stupid ass**.'

'Are you two idiots?!" shouted Bakugo. 'Izumi came up with the plan. _she_ made me trigger the explosion that hurt her. All of the other injuries were caused by All Might!'

'**She could've died**!'

'**Anyone** could've died when you're fighting against the fucking No.1 hero! At least she was unconscious when it happened!'

Todoroki reached in and grabbed Bakugo's collar, 'How would you know!?' He shook him.

'We don't know.' cut in Aizawa, temporally pausing the fight between the boys. 'We'll have to wait until she wakes to confirm all of the injuries that she has,' he glanced at Doya. 'then…'

'I won't allow it, Aizawa.'

Shinso glanced at Doya, his angry expression slowly fading. 'Aizawa-sensei, we've pretty much been beating around the bush this entire time. What is Ms. Doya so against?'

The teacher pressed his lips together.

'The police force…want her to interrogate a suspect at the police station.'

'So?' asked Bakugo.

'It's the same person that changed her into a girl.'

Their eyes widened.

'Wait, wait, wait.' Shinso put his hands to his head, his forehead scrunching up in concentration. Taking a deep breath, he started to gesture with his hands. 'The person that hurt Izumi three weeks ago, the one that caused the crossroads incident, the one that had the unusual quirk, the police want her to interrogate that person?'

'…Yes.'

'…Why?'

'Why would the police ever ask Izumi to do that?!' Todoroki pushed Bakugo back onto the bed.

'Ow, I hit my head, Half and Half! Do you want to die?'

Todoroki looked at the blond-haired boy with disdain. 'I couldn't care less about you right now. Why don't you start caring about the person that carried you in the exam?'

Bakugo sat up, rubbing his head. 'What does the villain have to do with her anyway? The villain defeated Deku, he got turned into a girl, big fucking deal. Why do _we_ need to know this?'

Aizawa sighed. 'This piece of news was disclosed to the media, but it should be fine to tell all of you. The quirk that Midoriya was hit with… it wasn't a gender-changing quirk, so we don't know the cause of the sudden change in her gender.'

'It could've been the shock, it could've been a sudden mutation due to the shock.' Doya leaned against the wall, head in her hands. 'Worst case scenario, it's something caused by the suspect's quirk.'

Shinso took another deep breath. 'Ok. I agree with Ms. Doya now. Why… are we sending Izumi, someone who barely turned 16 over to interrogate this suspect? This person is probably dangerous—'

'He has at least 4 confirmed kills, we know nothing about his background, nor his quirk.' added Doya.

Staring at Aizawa, the purple-haired gestured at the nurse. 'Why is this even being considered a good idea?'

Todoroki groaned. 'I'm probably agreeing with Hitoshi on more things in this hour than I'll ever in my life.'

'There's just no logic in this. Why would the police need Izumi to talk to the suspect?'

'Firstly, for some unknown reason, the suspect asked to talk to Midoriya, in exchange for information on the gender reversal.' Aizawa stared at the ground. 'You know how much she suffered because of the changes.'

'That's true.' The two boys looked over at Bakugo. 'This entire exam, if it wasn't for her abnormal quirk, it could've been over much faster and cleaner.'

Todoroki glanced over at the girl. 'So her injuries… if it wasn't for her sudden change in her quirk…'

Aizawa sat down in the chair.

'I want to send her to interrogate the suspect as much as Doya, but we don't have a choice.' said the teacher. 'We don't have enough authority in this situation to influence the choice of the police, even as the positions of a teacher and a nurse. The choice itself lies in whether Izumi agrees to this or not.'

The teacher looked straight into the eyes of all three boys, one by one.

'Do you think that Izumi would really say no in this situation, where she could potentially find the cause to her gender change?'

The room was silent.

'So, why are we fucking here?'

Aizawa stood up. 'I was going to give this task to Iida and Uraraka, but they're working on the exams, so I'll have to give this task to you three.'

He took a deep breath.

'If Izumi does agree to the offer to interrogate the suspect, can I trust you three… to go with her?'


End file.
